UPPER WEST SIDE — A building worker was stabbed by a man with a kitchen knife Wednesday afternoon on West End Avenue, police said.
The victim, a 51-year-old man, was taken to St. Luke's hospital at 1:54 p.m. Wednesday with stab wounds in stable condition, a Fire Department spokesman said. He was stabbed in the right arm at about 1:50 p.m. between West 94th and West 95th streets, police said.
The 26-year-old suspect was apprehended on the north side of West 95th between Broadway and West End Avenue, police said. He has not yet been charged, police said.
Police recovered a 12-inch kitchen knife that they believe he dropped at the scene. Police said they do not believe the two men knew each other.
Witnesses described the violent scene that erupted in an area known for pedestrian fatalities.
"[The victim] was on the ground bleeding from the right arm. There was a pool of blood. The paramedics put white cloth around his arm and helped him stand up. He was conscious. They put him on a stretcher and took him away," said Cedric Hubert, 24, a nearby hotel worker.
A trail of blood dotted the sidewalk on the east side of West End Avenue, ending in a large pool at the corner of West 95th Street.
A worker from 711 West End Ave., across the street from where the stabbing happened, said he heard a cry for help and came out to the street where he saw a man he recognized as a local worker.
"He was bleeding a lot," he said.
On Wednesday afternoon after the attack, a whole lane of West End Avenue traffic on the east side was blocked off from West 94th to West 96th streets.
Residents, unaware of what had happened and used to traffic crashes on the block as the explanation for a swarm of police officers and patrol cars, asked each other whether there had been another car crash.
When school let out, students from PS 7.5., at the corner of West 95th Street and West End Avenue, walked along the western stretch of sidewalk. The sidewalk across the street was still covered in blood and blocked off with caution and police tape.
