An unhinged slasher who randomly attacked a stranger outside a Manhattan subway station was free to walk on the streets despite a separate transit knife attack, officials said – as his disfigured victim raged the lax criminal justice system nearly got him killed.
Ex-con Demitri Marshall, 32, was nabbed several hours after he cut the 27-year-old man across his face without warning outside the East Broadway train station, cops said.
It was just the latest transit attack from the unhinged repeat offender, who was arrested for slashing a stranger on board a Bronx train last month – but was cut loose on supervised release in court.
His latest victim, who only provided his first name, needed seven stitches for a gash across his top lip and nose – but lamented that the seasoned perp could have taken his life.
“It’s wrong what the city of New York [did],” Fernando, who is originally from Ecuador and works as a painter, told The Post by phone in Spanish. “He’s a criminal who got released by a judge and he could’ve killed me. I don’t know why the justice system lets him go free.”
Fernando said he had just gotten off the train on his way home from work and was waiting to cross the street when the blade-wielding man ambushed him.
“I came out behind him, but I didn’t pay any attention to him,” the victim said. “I stopped on the corner, on the street. I couldn’t cross because the light was red, so I looked to the left and to the right, and I felt like a blow to my face. He grabbed me, and I was going to fight him but then I saw all the blood.
“He didn’t say anything. I was in shock,” he added. “I didn’t do anything to him. I told the police, ‘Thank God he didn’t hit me in the neck or something. I could’ve died.’”
The blood-soaked victim ran back down into the subway station, where he told on-duty cops what had happened, but they couldn’t find the attacker, who had already fled the scene.
“I have to be more vigilant,” Fernando said of the sudden burst of violence. “It makes me sad because I didn’t do anything wrong. Now look at what happened to me. It scares me to go outside. I could’ve been killed.”
Marshall, of the Bronx, was busted around 5:30 p.m. about a half-mile from the scene and charged with first-degree assault, a felony, according to cops and prosecutors.
He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on Rikers Island without bail during his Tuesday afternoon arraignment.
The move to keep Marshall behind bars came about a month after he was granted supervised release in connection to a subway slashing in the Bronx, prosecutors said.
In that case, he allegedly knifed a 21-year-old man across the left side of his face for no reason on board a No. 6 train passing through the Zerega Avenue station around 11:45 p.m. Aug. 28, cops and prosecutors said.
The victim was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where he had been listed in stable condition, cops said.
He was arrested on Sept. 15 and was charged with first-degree attempted assault, assault in the second and third degrees, criminal possession of a weapon and harassment, according to that criminal complaint.
Judge Ralph L. Wolf granted Marshall supervised release – despite prosecutors’ request for him to be held on $50,000 cash bail or $150,000 bond, the DA’s Office said.
When asked for background on the judge’s ruling, a spokesman for the state’s Office of Court Administration said “the court system does not comment on individual bail determinations.”
“It is important to note, however, that the vast majority of bail decisions turn on the court’s discretionary weighing of a broad range of factors in order to make an individualized assessment of the defendant’s risk of flight to avoid prosecution,” spokesman Al Baker said. “That assessment involves due consideration of information and arguments presented by the prosecutor and defense counsel, as well as other materials submitted to the court.”
Marshall had racked up seven busts before his latest unsettling attack. He had also been arrested back on Jan. 26 for allegedly punching a 27-year-old man – a stranger – on board an MTA bus at Allen and Grand streets on the Lower East Side, cops said.
“Get my sister’s name out of your mouth,” he snarled during the senseless attack, according to police.
The disposition of that case was not immediately known.
He was also arrested for allegedly punching a 33-year-old man in the side of the head on the northbound F train platform at Second Avenue back in March, law enforcement sources said.
That attack was ruled a hate crime – but he was still released with “non-monetary conditions” during his arraignment, according to online court records.
Marshall also served slightly over a year in state prison – from March of 2023 to June of 2024 – on a Manhattan robbery conviction, state Corrections records show.
He was released on parole, which expired in February, according to the records.
His other busts, dating back to 2012, include raps for robbery, burglary and fare evasion, sources said.
Marshall’s next court appearance on the latest case is scheduled for Oct. 30.
