A Brooklyn subway rider was stabbed and wounded early Monday by a fellow passenger angry the victim wouldn’t stop smoking, police said.
The 52-year-old victim was smoking on a a Manhattan-bound J train at the Kosciuszko St. station in Bushwick when he was confronted by the stabber, who asked him to put out the cigarette.
That sparked an argument, during which the assailant stabbed the smoker multiple times in the back, police said.
Medics rushed the victim to Kings County Hospital in stable condition. The suspect was taken into custody but not immediately charged.
The subway has been rocked by a series of high-profile crimes recently, including the March 14 Brooklyn shooting of a menacing subway rider with his own gun. The shooter was not charged because authorities determined he was acting in self-defense.
Through last Monday, subway crime is up 7% so far this year compared to by this time last year.
Assaults, one of the six felonies that comprise the crime rate, are up 8%, with 119 incidents compared to 110 by this point last year. Misdemeanor assaults are up 13% and petty larcenies are up 13%,
