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N train rider attacked by bat-swinging panhandler at Queensboro Plaza station: NYPD

The project at the Queensboro Plaza subway station includes installing two elevators at the southern entrance of the station to make the station fully accessible. (Photo by Michael Dorgan)

N train rider was beaten by bat-swinging panhandler at Queensboro Plaza on Sunday night after he refused to give him cash. File Photo by Michael Dorgan

Oct. 29, 2024 By Bill Parry

A 21-year-old man was bludgeoned by a bat-wielding panhandler inside the Queensboro Plaza subway station in Long Island City on Sunday night.

The victim was on the platform waiting for a Manhattan-bound N train at around 11:35 p.m. when the suspect approached him and asked for money. When the victim refused, the panhandler began to argue with him, and the verbal dispute escalated into violence when the perpetrator allegedly pulled out a baseball bat from his backpack and smashed the victim in the back of the head, police said Tuesday.

Police from the 108th Precinct in Long Island City and Transit District 20 responded to a 911 call of an assault in progress and found the victim bleeding from a laceration to the back of his head.

The suspect fled the scene on a Manhattan-bound N train. EMS responded and rushed the victim to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where he was listed in stable condition. There have been no arrests, and the investigation remains ongoing, according to an NYPD spokesman.

The suspect is believed to be in his 20s and around 5’10” tall. He wore an orange hooded sweatshirt and a gray backpack.

Anyone with information regarding this assault investigation is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.

Through Oct. 27, the 108th Precinct has reported 218 felony assaults so far in 2024, 15 more than the 203 reported at the same point last year, an increase of 7.4%, according to the most recent CompStat report. Transit crimes are down in the precinct, with 46 reported so far this year, 25 fewer than the 71 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 35.2%, according to CompStat.