New Subway Attacks Prompt More MTA Calls For Added Cops

NEW YORK CITY — A clamor from MTA officials to get more city cops in the subways grew Wednesday as multiple separate attacks unfolded.

Two attacks unfolded back-to-back in the Times Square subway station, officials said. An MTA employee was pushed and shoved without provocation by a screaming woman in the first attack, the New York Post first reported.

Then, more than hour later, a man was slashed on the left side of his face after he removed an earbud to talk to his attacker, the New York Daily News reported.

“Sadly once again, we’ve seen several separate attacks within a few hours across three boroughs – two of them taking place at the busiest station in our system by far, Times Sq.-42nd St.," Sarah Feinberg, the transit agency's interim chief, said in a statement. "The mayor must act. The transit system needs an injection of additional mental health resources and a visible police presence on platforms and trains to deter crime and better support our customers returning to the system."

Violence on the subway has become a flash point between MTA officials, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Cuomo and MTA officials have vocally pressed de Blasio and the NYPD to put more cops on the subway to alleviate riders' concerns about safety. The governor in a news conference last week loudly declared he wouldn't let his own child ride the subway.

De Blasio responded with bemusement.

"My children take the subway all the time," he said. "If you said to one of my kids, 'Oh, you shouldn't go on the subway. It's not safe,' they would laugh you out of the room, they would tell you, you clearly couldn't be a real New Yorker. They couldn't think of life without taking the subway, and let's get real. Let's tell people it's safe because it is safe, and it's part of our recovery."

The mayor has accused Cuomo and MTA officials of fearmongering. The subways are overwhelmingly safe and the city has already dispatched 600 more officers into the system, he told WNYC's Brian Lehrer last week.