A Bronx man who lost four fingers protecting his beloved pit bull from a machete-wielding stranger had to have them surgically re-arranged to account for a missing digit, the stunned victim told the Daily News.
Rakeem Tayquon Young, 34, was walking his dog, Chanel, near Southern Blvd. and E. 178th St. in East Tremont about 11:20 a.m. Friday when the crazed attacker, also accompanied by a pooch, approached him.
“He was like, ‘Yo, get your dog. I’m [going to] chop her head off,’” Young recalled from his hospital bed Sunday. “And then the dude just swung the knife at me for no apparent reason. I remember lifting my hand saying, ‘No! No!’”
As Young raised his hand to shield Chanel’s head from the large blade, the attacker chopped off the fingers of his left hand.
“He went to hit me a second time, after he cut my hand,” said Young. “He swung for my face. He went to reach for the knife again and that’s when [Chanel] attacked him.”
NYPD
Police say this man pulled out a machete and sliced off Rakeem Tayquon Young’s fingers. (NYPD)
As the attacker punched and scratched the victim’s loyal pit bull she turned to protect Young — an act of bravery that made the proud owner tear up as he recounted the traumatic event.
“I was just trying to protect [Chanel],” said Young as he fought back tears. “And you know, I would do it again.”
In shock, Young chased after the attacker before realizing he needed to stop in a bodega for help.
“I’m running down the street and missing the fingers,” Young said. “When he first initially swung the [machete] I did look and see that my fingers was gone. After that I could not look no more.”
“I couldn’t believe it,” he added. “It wasn’t even painful because it was just, maybe because, my adrenaline and everything.”
Medics took him to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he underwent a 13-hour surgery before he was transferred to Bellevue Hospital for recovery.
Emergency workers recovered three of his four missing fingers but the fourth was lost to the city streets in the chaos, prompting a desperate search, his mother Kimtreese Young said.
“My sister, my sister’s husband, his friends, like people was literally out there looking, even after he was in the hospital, they were still out there looking for the fingers that was missing.”
“They basically put my pointer finger as my middle finger and my middle finger as my ring finger,” said Young. “So I’m just missing my index finger. They couldn’t find the ring finger.”
Roni Jacobson / New York Daily News
Rakeem Tayquon Young FaceTimes with his dog Chanel from his hospital bed on Sunday. Four of Young’s fingers were chopped off (right) by a machete-wielding attacker in the Bronx on Friday. (Roni Jacobson / New York Daily News)
Young has had the 3-year-old pooch since she was a puppy, even keeping Chanel after an eviction last year left them homeless.
“We just been through it together,” said Young. “Whatever happened to me happened to her. When I got evicted, she got evicted.”
His protective instinct kicked in when his dog was threatened by the stranger.
“My son’s first instinct was, he tried to block the blow, to protect his baby,” the victim’s mother said.
Young is so emotionally attached to his pet he is “tormented” by the thought of what could have happened.
“Every time I close my eyes I replay it over and over again and I have a hard time sleeping,” said Young. “If he would have sliced my dog’s head off like that, that would have broke my heart. That would have broke me for the rest of my life.”
Courtesy Tayquon Young
Rakeem Tayquon Young’s dog, Chanel. (Courtesy Rakeem Tayquon Young)
Police are still searching for the man who attacked Young and Chanel after releasing surveillance footage of the suspect late Friday. They are asking the public’s help identifying him and tracking him down.
“When that [UnitedHealthcare] CEO got killed they did everything to track him down, building by building by building,” said Young. “You’re gonna tell me all these buildings on E. Tremont Ave. in the Bronx that got cameras, you can’t track him down? Because my fingers is missing and to me that’s a problem. This is going to affect me for the rest of my life.”
Young worries his family will be saddled with enormous medical debt as he undergoes therapy to relearn how to use his hand.
“The first thing was trying to help get his hand together,” his mother said. “After that, the second is, how are we paying for this? We’re not rich … Right now, with a wing and a prayer. We’re just gonna see how it how it goes.”
Meanwhile they are frightened the attacker remains on the loose.
“That man went out there in search of a problem,” Kimtreese Young said of her son’s attacker. “Because who goes out there with a big machete in his hands? He was looking for problems. And my son just happened to be the one.”
Anyone with information on the attacker is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
