William Blount, a 57-year-old homeless man, was arrested Sunday for allegedly striking a woman multiple times in the head with hammer at the Queens Plaza subway station Thursday night (Photo NYPD)
Feb. 27, 2022 By Christian Murray
A 57-year-old homeless man was arrested Sunday for the gruesome hammer attack of a woman at the Queens Plaza subway station Thursday night.
William Blount, 57, who resides at a Manhattan homeless shelter, was arrested on charges of attempted murder, robbery, and assault for allegedly hitting a woman as many as 13 times with a hammer as she was walking down a flight of steps at an entrance to the Queens Plaza subway station at around 11:20 p.m.
Police said that Blount lives at 52 William St. in Manhattan, the address of the former Radisson Hotel, which has been converted into a homeless shelter.
Police released a photo of the William Blount who allegedly bludgeoned Nina Rothschild with a hammer at the Queens Plaza subway station Thursday (NYPD)
The victim, Nina Rothschild, suffered a fractured skull and lacerations to the head and is in critical condition following the attack.
Rothschild was attacked on her way home from work. She was coming from the NYC Health Department, where she works as a senior health scientist, which is around the corner from the subway station.
Video was released of the incident Friday that caused public outrage.
“Last night’s vile, unprovoked attack on healthcare hero Nina Rothschild is chilling and sadistic beyond words,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.
“No one should feel unsafe in their community or feel like a target in their local subway station. In the wake of this savage assault, the NYPD must increase its presence at the Queens Plaza stop and the surrounding subway stations in the immediate area to give Western Queens residents the peace of mind they deserve as they move in and out of the transit system,” Richards said.
Featured Events
5 Comments
So this criminal gets housing payed by taxpayers in Manhattan and there was stabbing just yesterday around that shelter. These shelters need to go, give them some housing in Albany or something.
Donovan Richards needs to resign. Richards has the audacity to now say ““No one should feel unsafe in their community or feel like a target in their local subway station. In the wake of this savage assault, the NYPD must increase its presence at the Queens Plaza stop and the surrounding subway stations”, but in 2020 and 2021 he was fully for defunding police and was one of the handful of Queens Council members to vote on cutting the NYPD budget. Why do we let our elected officials get off so easily? Or at least our liberal elected officials. There are less police on the streets today in part because of Donovan Richards. He is partially to blame for this uptick in violent crime we are seeing in NYC. Below are a number of sources as evidence of Donovan’s past statements against the NYPD and his vote to cut the NYPD budget. If this does not wake you up, nothing will:
Past Donovon Richards quotes with regards to defunding the NYPD:
-Daily News. “NYPD budget should be cut by $50 million: NYC City Council. May 13, 2020”: Councilman Donovan Richards, head of the Council’s Public Safety Committee, said Wednesday that the police department should eliminate up to $30 million in overtime as well as $25 million by cutting the next round of graduates from the police academy.”
-Queens Daily Eagle. “Borough president panel tackles position in police reform”. May 26, 2021: “While Richards and Van Bramer were in agreement about the value of evaluating the prevalence and financial prioritization of the NYPD, Crowley said she stands firmly against defunding the police.”
LIC Post. “City Council Passes Budget With Steep Cuts to NYPD: Here’s How Queens Members Voted”. July 1, 2020. “The budget has been criticized on both sides of the political spectrum. Some leaders say that cutting the NYPD budget puts the public at risk, while others have said the cuts are not enough and are just smoke and mirrors. The latter argue that shifting money from the NYPD to other agencies — like the transfer of school safety agents from the NYPD to the DOE — is not a true cut to the police budget. Still, the majority of Queens council members voted to adopt the budget last night.
Council Members Adrienne Adams, Daniel Dromm, Barry Grodenchik, Peter Koo, Karen Koslowitz, Rory Lancman, I. Daneek Miller, Francisco Moya and Paul Vallone all voted yes.
Five Queens council members, however, voted against the budget. Council Members Robert Holden, Eric Ulrich, Donovan Richards, Antonio Reynoso and Jimmy Van Bramer all voted it down.
Holden criticized the decision to cut police funding during his “no” vote. “As one of very few Council members who has lived through several crime waves in our great city, I am very concerned that the protest-driven movement to defund the NYPD will lead us toward another high-crime era,” Holden said.
-Insider.com. “The New York City Council passed a budget to defund the NYPD by $1 billion — but nobody seems to like it”. July 1, 2020: “A $1 billion budget cut can’t address the racism that runs rampant in the NYPD,” he said. “We must send a clear message that it’s not OK to kettle peaceful protesters, that it’s not OK to place Black and brown New Yorkers in a chokehold as they gasp for air.” Pretty sure the BLM protests were not “peaceful protesters”. Remember the mass destruction of NYC real estate by these kind, gentle protestors? Remember when you could not buy plywood for months because all of Manhattan was boarded up to prevent more destruction by BLM?
You are 100% correct. I never liked D. Richards and was hoping he did not win. Voters in NYC & State are fooled by the Democratic Socialist Media. Many do not care to find out the info you did Most do not bither to inform themselves on the candidates. Most vote with tje flow and who the Dem Socialist media tells them who is leading in the polls not much whete they stand on the issues or are fooled by the media skirtong the issue or the media & candidate tellingnwhy their side just say defunding the police is the best eay. The other side rarely gets heard on media. Take Joe Bidem. The mefia rarely hits him.on the Border which is WIDE OPEN and how he failed in Afghanistan or how he cut our Keystone XL pipeline but gave the ok to Putin and Nord stream 2 pipeline. Even now with The Ukraine invasion.we sre still getting about 600k thousand of barrels of oil from Russia
Meanwhile Biden just stopped any oil lor gas leases on fedetal land. Where is goingnto get tje oil from our teserves, not forever Socialist Joe. The electric infrastructure is not im place to go all
green uet. Only about 30 % is. Them there ois OPEC and tjey tefused to increase production last time. Trump wanted to make us energy infrpendent.
I hope they keep him in jail and some soft on Crime Liberal Democratic Socialist judge and DA let him walk so he can attack someone else. Never Vote Democrat ic again. I learndf that about 22 years ago.
So you’d like them to:
1. Keep him in jail
2. Have your political opponents free him
3. Have him attack someone again
What a roller coaster ride….