QUEENS — A homeless man with a lenghty rap sheet attacked a straphanger at a Queens subway station on Sunday afternoon, slashing him in the face with a box cutter, police said.
Kristopher Brown, 35, slashed the 26-year-old victim after he got off a Manhattan-bound E train at the Union Turnpike station in Kew Gardens about 2:18 p.m. Easter Sunday, just steps away from Queens Borough Hall and the borough's Criminal Court, police said.
It was unclear whether the men knew each other and whether an argument preceded the attack, the NYPD said.
Brown, who has around 30 arrests for mostly low-level transit offenses, then ran out of the station and hopped on a bus, police said. Police pursued the bus and pulled it over on Union Turnpike near 147th Street in Kew Gardens Hills, authorities said.
When the bus stopped, Brown leaped out and tried to flee, leading police on a brief foot pursuit, police said. He was caught at 3:37 p.m., police said.
The victim, whose name was not released, was taken to Jamaica Hospital in stable condition, police said.
Brown, who gave his address as a homeless shelter on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, was expected to be arraigned on charges of felony assault, police said.
