A rash of killings on the city subway system this year — which stands at 10 murders as 2024 draws to a close — matches a 25-year high set in 2022, authorities said.
The grim milestone came as an illegal migrant allegedly burned a sleeping woman to death aboard a Brooklyn train as part of a violent weekend in the Big Apple transit system.
On Sunday a brute senselessly slugged a 76-year-old woman in the head, causing her to fall to the ground, on the southbound No. 6 train platform at 51st Street around 4:30 p.m., cops said.
The senior was hospitalized in stable condition as cops released images of the attacker, seen on the platform wearing a white winter hat with a gray pom-pom at the top.
Hours later, a menace punched a 27-year-old straphanger in the back of the head in what appeared to be an unprovoked attack around 10 p.m. Sunday on the northbound 6 train platform at Bleecker Street, cops and sources said.
The ruthless assailant continued punching and kicking the victim after he had fallen to the floor, leaving him with minor injuries, cops said.
The suspect then fled the scene and hadn’t been caught by Monday morning.
The front half of the weekend was rife with other acts of violence on the rails.
A 69-year-old man attacked two of the five younger migrant men who tried to rob him on board a southbound 7 train at the 61 Street-Woodside station in Queens around 12:30 a.m. Sunday, cops and sources said.
A yet-to-be-identified 37-year-old man was stabbed to death, and 26-year-old Philipe Pena was left with non-life-threatening slash wounds, authorities said.
Pena was hospitalized in stable condition and later charged with robbery, assault, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and harassment in connection to the stick-up, cops said.
Henry Toapanta, 32, Oswaldo Walter, 29 and Jose Valencia, 35, all face the same charges, authorities said.
The alleged stabber, who also suffered slash wounds, was taken into custody, police said.
As of Monday, the Queens District Attorney’s Office was declining to prosecute the case, as it appeared the older man had knifed the pair in self-defense, according to law enforcement sources.
In another attack, a baby-faced duo is suspected of shooting two young men, 18 and 21, inside the Avenue U subway station in Brooklyn around 3:10 p.m. Saturday, cops said.
The two wounded men had just gotten off a southbound Q train when the pair opened fire – striking the younger victim in the left arm and torso and the older victim in the left leg.
Both men were taken to local hospitals, where they are listed in stable condition.
Video released by the NYPD shows the suspects – who appear to be a teen boy and girl – getting off a bus and then a train.
The motive for the violence remains under investigation.
On Friday morning, a heartless attacker pummeled an 83-year-old man who accidentally tripped over his leg – sparking an argument onboard a Lower Manhattan train, cops and sources said.
The suspect punched the senior in the face multiple times on a southbound 5 train approaching the Fulton Street station around 6:10 a.m., authorities said.
The NYPD released a photo showing the suspect wearing an orange sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, a black vest, sunglasses, a baseball cap and multiple rings and bracelets.
The weekend’s violence kicked off with the horrific Coney Island scene in which Guatemalan migrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, allegedly used what appeared to be a lighter to ignite the clothing of a sleeping straphanger, who became consumed in flames and died at the scene.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the slaying “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit.”
So far this year – through Sunday – 10 murders have been reported within the city’s subway system, double the five investigated by the NYPD within the same period last year.
The spike in killings matches a 25-year high set in 2022, when 10 murders were also reported, data shows.
From 1997 to 2019, there were never more than five murders in the subway in a single year, according to the earliest public NYPD data.
Six people were killed within the transit system in 2020, and eight in 2021, the statistics show.
Felony assaults reported in transit so far this year are nearly even with last year’s tally — with 565 reported versus 566 within the same time frame in 2023.
However, the past 28 days have been particularly violent in the city’s underground, with 51 felony assaults reported compared to 38 during that period in 2023.
Overall, felony crime has dipped by just over 5% so far this year within the subway system.
