This article was scraped from Rochester Subway. This is a blog about Rochester history and urbanism has not been published since 2017. The current owners are now publishing link spam which made me want to preserve this history.. The original article was published November 22, 2009 and can be found here.
I admit I'm a bit of a news junkie. And with all the violence reported in the media I'm also a bit apathetic to most stories. It's not that I don't care--it's quite the opposite actually. I'm just numb. Occasionally though I come across a story so horrific it sends a chill thru my veins. Like this one for example. At about 2am Saturday morning (11/21/2009) a man was stabbed to death in the NYC Subway--over a seat.
Now I've done my share of walking in Manhattan and I can empathize with just about any New Yorker who complains that their feet hurt--but I just can't imagine killing someone because of it.
Seriously dude? You stabbed and killed someone over a seat! Here's a tip, find your nearest Walmart and buy this portable stool for 25 bucks if you're that much of a baby. It's extremely lightweight too so even a sissy like yourself could tote it around (probably).
To make the story worse, the murderer's brother is reportedly making excuses for him, saying he was recently hurt in a workplace accident and suggesting that medication may have had something to do with the incident. Right you jackass, it's not your brother's fault that he stabbed someone IN THE FACE, repeatedly, with a knife, on a subway train--OVER A SEAT!
My thoughts and heart goes out to the victim and his family--as well as the other riders who had the terrible misfortune of witnessing this nonsense. Read the full report from the Associated Press below...
(AP) - November 22, 2009
NEW YORK -- A subway passenger was stabbed to death in front of horrified riders in a dispute with another man over a seat in the car early Saturday morning in midtown Manhattan, police said.
The victim, who has not been identified, was pronounced dead at the Seventh Avenue station at West 53rd Street, where the train stopped after the attack at about 2 a.m. The victim, who was in his mid-30s, was repeatedly stabbed in the neck and face with a knife, police said.
He had boarded the train at the Rockefeller Center station, police said.
Gerardo Sanchez, 37, of the Bronx, was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon in the slaying on the northbound "D" train, police said.
It was not immediately clear late Saturday night whether Sanchez had an attorney. There was no home phone number listed for Sanchez at an address provided by police.
His brother, Louis Sanchez, told the New York Daily News that Gerardo Sanchez recently had been hurt in a workplace accident and was taking medication.
A train conductor alerted workers at a rail control center, who called authorities about the fight.
Sanchez was standing over the bloodied victim when the train doors opened at the Seventh Avenue station, police said.
Copyright (c) 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
UPDATE: So it looks like there's more to this story after all. The New York Post reports that the victim, Dwight Johnson, 36, punched Sanchez in the face before the stabbing. That's no justification for pulling a knife, but it goes to show there's usually two sides to the story.
