By Ben Fractenberg
DNAinfo News Editor
UPPER EAST SIDE — A 24-year-old man was slashed across the throat by a homeless man following a fight on the street Tuesday morning.
The man was stabbed in the throat on 63rd Street, between York Avenue and the FDR Drive about 9 a.m., police said. The victim was taken to New York Presbyterian-Cornell Weill, where he was a in a stable condition, the NYPD said.
The attacker, who witnesses said often takes refuge underneath a nearby walkway, fled the scene, police said. NYPD sources did not believe the victim was homeless.
Witnesses said they saw the two men arguing on 63rd Street.
“First there was a struggle,” said Jeanne Bellivau, who watched the exchange from a second-story window at nearby Rockefeller University.
“Then one guy struck the other.”
Bellivau described the attacker at standing about 5-foot-10, with dreadlocks and wearing a red T-shirt. She said she believed the man was homeless and regularly stayed underneath the elevated walkway that goes over the FDR Drive.
She described him as agitated this morning.
Police responding to the scene with a canine unit searched the area under the walkway, which was strewn with cardboard boxes.
A doorman who works at a building for university housing on 63rd Street also said he has seen the alleged attacker before and that the man seemed bothered around 8:30 a.m.
“He was shaking — un-normal for him,” said Dennis Rivera, an employee at the building for 23 years.
He added that “he’s usually just pushing his cart” and said he’s also seen him staying underneath the walkway.
