A Bronx man had four of his fingers sliced off by a crazed machete-wielding attacker who had threatened to behead the victim’s beloved pooch and maimed the owner instead, he told The Post.
Doctors spent 13 hours reattaching three of the fingers on Tayquon Young’s left hand — but the fourth couldn’t be found, he said from his hospital bed.
“There is a maniac running around with a machete cutting up people’s hands. I hope the city finds this man and gets him the help that he needs,” said Young’s mother, Kimtreese Young, who pleaded for authorities to take the grisly incident “seriously.”
Young, 34, was walking with his caramel-colored pit bull Chanel at the corner of Southern Boulevard and East 178th around 11:30 a.m. Friday when the 4-year-old pup began trying to play with another man’s smaller canine, according to Young and authorities.
“I was on the phone with my wife, and his dog came up on my dog,” Young recalled.
“They was playing around, his dog didn’t have a leash, my dog was next to me, she wasn’t biting his dog or anything. My dog was trying to play around.”
But the other dog owner took exception, becoming enraged and threatened to cut Chanel’s head off.
He reached into an inner coat pocket — and whipped out a large blade.
“He pulls out the machete to cut my dog’s head off. I put my hand out to grab the sword, and he just cut my hand off,” a shocked Young said.
The machete “was about 30 inches, over two feet.”
“I was in disbelief . … I knew that the fingers were missing, I knew that, but I didn’t want to look down.”
No one tried to help him, he said.
“They was just watching, recording it on their phones to post on their websites. People wasn’t helping me. I had to tell them to call 911. The owner of the store son was recording me. That’s crazy.”
The machete man fled and Young, a maintenance worker for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was rushed to the hospital.
His family tried to find his fourth finger, but couldn’t.
“I know they were looking for the fourth one. I think maybe a bird took it,” said Young, who credited his doctors for being able to reattach the remaining fingers.
“I don’t feel it at all, they numbed it, I’m alright. I’ve been sleeping,” he said. “I’m still in shock. Every time I close my eyes I think about it. When I wake up from sleep I see it, the hit, the impact, the feeling of the brush.”
On Saturday the NYPD released surveillance images of the attack and the machete-carrying madman.
“He had to be already looking for problems to be carrying around a machete. It wasn’t about the dog. He was looking to get into a problem,” said Young, who hoped his case gets the same attention as other crimes in the city.
“I almost feel like if I was shot, they would be more serious about it. When that guy shot the CEO, they found him. My situation should be taken just as seriously,” he said, referring to the Midtown murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
His family now fears for Young’s future.
“We are worried about his livelihood,” his mom said. “He works in maintenance. How could he work now? We are keeping him in our prayers. I know my son as a strong man. It’s hard to see him break down in tears every five minutes [and say] ‘I was just trying to protect my dog.””
Young’s uncle, Andrew Price, lamented the unhinged violence.
“The Bronx has gotten so bad, it’s almost become normal to hear about violence. It happens every day,” he said.
“It makes you think, ‘Should I carry a weapon now?’ Because anybody could have something. My nephew was unarmed.
“I’m just happy it was a finger, and not his whole hand, or his life.”
