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Read the press release here.

Homeless Man Stabs Times Square Worker in Neck, Police Say

By Maya Rajamani | April 18, 2016 5:52pm
 Zaki Smith, 26, was arrested and charged with assault after stabbing a Times Square Alliance worker, police said.
Zaki Smith, 26, was arrested and charged with assault after stabbing a Times Square Alliance worker, police said.
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TIMES SQUARE — A homeless man asking for money nearly killed a worker in Times Square after stabbing him in the neck with a scissors during a fight, officials said.

Zaki Smith, 26, stabbed the Times Square Alliance sanitation worker after the victim refused to hand over cash and a fight ensued, the NYPD said.

Henry Cooper, 58, of The Bronx, was working near West 47th Street and Eighth Avenue around 8:15 a.m. on Sunday when Smith first approached him, police said.

Cooper refused to give Zaki money when he asked, and the argument escalated into a physical fight, the NYPD said.

At some point during the tussle, Smith stabbed Cooper in the neck and ear with a pair of scissors, according to complaint filed with the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

Cooper suffered “severe lacerations” to his ear and neck and bled “extensively, to the point where he was losing consciousness,” the DA's office said.

A doctor at the hospital where Cooper was taken said he nearly died as a result of the bleeding, the complaint said.

Zaki was arrested and charged with assault, the DA’s office said.

A Times Square Alliance spokesman confirmed the attack.

“Mr. Cooper and his family are in our thoughts as he begins his recovery,” the spokesman said in a statement. “We are enormously grateful to the first responders who saved his life by quickly treating his injuries and to the NYPD for apprehending his attacker."

Smith is currently being held on $50,000 bail, city Department of Correction records show.

He is expected to next appear in court on April 22, the DA’s office said.

An attorney for Smith did not immediately respond to request for comment Monday.