Moment NYC 'knifeman' flees after slashing woman, 41, in stomach as she walked with her two kids

As New York City finishes 2021 with crime up on all fronts and rising six percent from 2020, two more disturbing attacks took place to add to those grim statistics. 

On Tuesday, police released footage of the aftermath of an attack that took place in Northwest Brooklyn.

The incident happened on Sunday at around 6:25 p.m. in the area of 45th Street and 8th Avenue. 

A woman, 41, was walking with her two children when a man approached her and brandished a knife.

The man then slashed the woman in the stomach, causing a minor cut. He then fled southbound on foot, and was filmed vaulting a subway station barrier as he escaped the scene. 

The victim was taken to a local hospital and is in stable condition.    

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the NYPD released new video of the assault of a 75-year-old man on the ritzy Upper West Side of Manhattan. 

The incident took place at around 2:50 a.m. on December 20 inside a Capital One bank lobby on West 72nd Street. An unknown man punched the 75-year-old from behind and knocked him to the ground.

The victim was taken to a local hospital and treated for a laceration to his eye.   

No arrests have been made and the NYPD is still investigating the assault.  

Overall, crime rose 6.13 percent in New York City over 2020 through December 26.

The biggest rise came in felony assaults like the ones previously mentioned, which rose 9.6 percent from 2020.  

Murders (4.1 percent), shooting victims (0.6 percent), rapes (3.3 percent), and robberies (4.7 percent) have also risen this year. 

Incoming Mayor Eric Adams and new police chief Keechant Sewell will be tasked with harnessing the world’s largest police force to clean up New York City’s worsening crime problem under lame duck Bill de Blasio. 

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, who departs at the end of the month, has blamed bail reform laws enacted by the Democratic-dominated state Legislature for the spike in violent crime. 

In early 2020, criminal justice reform measures passed by the New York State Legislature and signed into law by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo took effect.

The new law has received increasing scrutiny over its rules that allow New York courts to release people who would have remained in jail under the old rules.

The statute, which went into place at the beginning of the year, eliminated cash bail and pretrial detention for a wide majority of low-level cases and nonviolent felonies.

The law also allows courts to release a person under certain conditions, such as a travel or firearm restriction.

Shea and others have claimed that the new law is to blame for the increase in violent crime. 

But defenders of the law say that violent crime has increased in most of the country – including in jurisdictions that did not enact any criminal justice reform measures. 

Despite the spike in crime, Mayor Bill de Blasio commended Shea’s leadership in their last monthly press conference on crime statistics earlier this month. ‘I think the commissioner has a lot to be proud of,’ De Blasio said.  

Shea, who was appointed to his position in December 2019, said he ‘wouldn’t change a thing.’ 

‘I consider the work that [my executive team] did was the glue that held the city together through one of the toughest times the city has seen,’ said Shea, adding, ‘Obviously, people make mistakes and things.’