The number of people caught with illegal knives in the NYC subway system has skyrocketed by 60%.
At least 572 people have been arrested with blades so far this year, compared to 358 during the same period last year, according to NYPD Transit Bureau data.
It is illegal to carry knives in the subway system.
The number of related arrests has risen 126% over the last four years, the data shows.
Slashings on the subway continue to make headlines, including the deadly stabbing of 18-year-old Isaiah Collazo on a northbound D train as it entered the Fourth Avenue and Pacific Street station in Boerum Hill in Brooklyn on April 7.
Collazo was with a friend who yanked the train’s emergency brake, ticking off Mark Smith, 25, who then started arguing with Collazo before plunging a knife into his stomach, according to NYPD officials.
“This guy confronts him, ‘What the hell did you do that for?’ ” NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said. “There’s sort of a scrum, pulls out a knife, hits him, stabs him.”
“It’s a stupid kid prank,” Essig said of the incident that sparked the killing.
Smith later turned himself into the police, according to Essig.
The manslaughter charges against Smith were dismissed in May after a grand jury voted not to indict him because Collazo and his friend were considered the aggressors.
Late last month a group of ski mask-wearing teenagers stabbed a man on the C train at Pitkin Avenue in East New York.
The victim was taken to Brookdale Hospital in critical condition.
Two weeks later, a 23-year-old woman was slashed in the face by a stranger who did not say a word before the unprovoked attack on the northbound 3 train as it pulled into the Nostrand Avenue station in Crown Heights.
Police arrested 29-year-old Iking Dennis in the attack.
There has been a 10% increase in felony assault arrests on the subway system this year compared to the same time last year, according to NYPD Transit Bureau data.
Gun arrests on the subways have also been on the rise over the years with a nearly 90% increase since 2019, the data shows.
