Police have arrested a mentally ill homeless man they say slashed two strangers on a Queens subway platform within a violent five-minute spree.
Tyquan Manassa, 28, has been charged with multiple counts of assault for the back-to-back slashings on the Manhattan-bound E train platform in the Kew Gardens-Union Turnpike station around 3:15 p.m. Wednesday.
Cops grabbed Manassa after he was arrested for criminal mischief inside a Randall’s Island shelter where he was staying, a police source with knowledge of the case said.
As officers took him into custody, they realized he was wanted for the slashing spree, the source said.
Cops had already released surveillance images of the man wanted for the slashings and were asking the public’s help in tracking him down.
Manassa allegedly attacked two men on the platform, including Kew Gardens resident Carlos Plasencia, who was on his daily route to the Manhattan restaurant where he works as a server.
Plasencia, 50, was waiting for his train when Manassa attacked his first victim, a 42-year-old man, on the other end of the platform.
“I saw people yelling and screaming on the back of the platform. … They were getting closer and closer, and I see somebody was bleeding and another person was bleeding,” Plasencia, 50, recalled. “Some lady was saying, ‘Call the police!’ I was right next to the conductor. As soon as I was telling [the conductor to call police] … the guy jumped right in front of me with a knife in his hand.”
“He was yelling, ‘What’s up? What’s up?’ He looked like he was high, and he was just attacking people for no reason,” he said. “At that point … I just thought, ‘I have to make it home. I have to be home.’ I’m a father of four, so you know, I was just trying to make it home.”
Manassa, while clutching a knife in his hand, punched Plasencia below his left eye, somehow leaving him with a gash above his eyebrow.
“I think it was part of the back of the knife that got me on my eyebrow,” he said. “I don’t think it was the blade. I don’t know exactly what happened.”
Medics took the younger victim to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens, where he was treated for minor wounds and released. Plasencia, although shaken, didn’t believe he was badly injured and continued on his way into Manhattan.
Manassa ran off, only to be arrested in Manhattan hours later.
Police said Manassa has been arrested over a dozen times dating back to 2014, mostly for misdemeanor assaults and criminal mischief.
He also suffers from mental and emotional outbursts, a police source said, adding that, over the years, cops have been repeatedly asked to bring him to a hospital for psychological evaluations. It was not immediately clear if he has a diagnosed mental illness.
Manassa’s arraignment in Queens Criminal court was pending.
Wednesday’s attacks come as police fight a slight uptick in assaults in the city’s subway system. As of Sunday, the city had seen 509 assaults on the rails this year, nine more than by this time last year.
Overall transit crime is down by 4% this year compared to last, with major decreases in robbery, bag snatching and pickpocketing, officials said.
Plasencia said the assault won’t keep him from riding the subway, but he will take certain precautions moving forward.
“I have to be double-checking where I’m standing, looking around more, paying more attention,” he said. “If I see anybody get beat up, I’m not gonna help nobody, I’m just gonna go. I believe that’s how New York is now. Nobody helps nobody.”
