by REERA YOO | @reeraboo
editor@charactermedia.com
A machete-wielding man slashed a South Korean woman in the arm in an unprovoked attack in Bryant Park on Tuesday, according to media reports.
The 31-year-old woman, reportedly a tourist from South Korea, had just left a yoga class when the suspect, identified as Frederick Young, 43, approached her at around 11:30 a.m. Witnesses screamed as they saw Young slash the victim’s arm twice before calmly walking away.
“He walked right by me,” Brian Moss, maintenance worker, told the New York Daily News. “I didn’t even realize it was him until people started screaming, ‘Stop him! Stop him!’ and then I saw the machete in his hand.”
A security officer who witnessed the grisly assault pursued Young and flagged down NYPD officers near the scene. Young was taken into custody on the south side of the park, near West 40th Street.
Witnesses said he surrendered calmly and dropped his machete, as ordered.
Young has a total of 23 prior arrests, including one from 2010 for assaulting another victim with a similar weapon, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce. Young most recently pleaded guilty to stealing $45 worth of items from a midtown Kmart. He is believed to be homeless, according to authorities.
As for the machete victim, she is currently being treated at Bellevue Hospital; her injuries were not considered life-threatening. One quick-thinking witness had wrapped the woman’s injury with a shirt to help contain the blood loss.
Park patrons were shocked to see such a violent attack occur in broad daylight, in a bustling public area, no less. Young’s assault comes a day after the NYPD found the body of Tyrell Shaw, the 25-year-old suspect responsible for a string of recent attacks on Asian woman in Manhattan.
“I was just thinking about that guy who’s been attacking Asian women and last night he committed suicide,” one witness told ABC7. “I was thinking at least the city’s a little safer. But when you hear things like this, it’s kind of unnerving.”
This is not the first time Bryant Park has seen violence. In a November 2013 shooting, a 16-year-old gunman injured two people, including a 14-year-old, at the park’s ice rink. The suspect, now 18, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.
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Featured image via ABC7/Michael Munevar (screenshot)
