Broadway actor recovering after being attacked in NYC subway station
A Broadway actor is recovering today after being brutally attacked in an NYC subway station.
Alex Weisman, a member of the original cast of “Harry Potter and The Cursed Child”, needed to undergo laser eye surgery after he was punched repeatedly in the face at the 103rd Street station on the Upper West Side on Tuesday, according to the actor and police.
The actor told the NY Post that he initially thought the man was approaching him to ask for money “but instead he just started hitting me in the face.”
According to the NY Post,
Weisman was bloodied but hopped back on the downtown B train and got off at the next stop, where he received help.
“Two older women helped me up to the station manager’s office. The police came quickly, paramedics came,” he recalled.
Weisman, who said, “I couldn’t see out of my eye,” was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital West, where he learned he suffered a retina tear and two fractures in his right eye socket.
At this time, no description of the suspect has been released and no arrests have been made.
Sadly, this incident is yet another example of how subway attacks in NYC have dramatically increased. On Thursday, Nov 19th, a 40-year-old woman was shoved on to the tracks at the northbound platform at Union Square. Her attacker had been pacing the platform, parts of which are frighteningly narrow, before seeing the 5 train approach and pushing her, from behind, into its path.
Hours before the Thursday morning’s Union Square attack, a 36-year-old man waiting on the platform 42nd Street was punched in the head, then shoved onto the tracks, by a man angry that the straphanger wouldn’t hand over cash.
Hours before that, a 60-year-old woman was beaten by two assailants, a man and a woman, at the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station after she told them to wear masks. Once she fell to the ground, the man kept on beating her.
Attacks on the subways have increased so much that local officials are now pleading with Mayor Bill D’Blasio for help.
“It’s not fair to the . . . people who are using this system,” NYC Transit Interim President, Sarah Feinberg, said. “It’s not fair to the woman who experienced this today. We have a crisis in this city and it absolutely has to be addressed. It’s got to be addressed, and I’m desperate for this mayor or the next mayor to take it on because we’ve got a long way to go.”