The Israeli tourist who was slashed last week by a homeless man in a New York City subway station flew home to the safety of Israel Monday night.
Avraham Fekete, 55, told JP Updates in an exclusive interview conducted in Yiddish he had been in “a lot of pain and soaked from blood” after being stabbed late Thursday night. But as soon as he reached the street and was seen, two “Good Samaritans” helped him put pressure on a neck wound to stop the bleeding and called police. That injury and stab wounds to his face, arms and hands were first treated at the scene by EMS medics who were summoned by police officers.
He was then evacuated to Bellevue Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition and remained through the weekend. Fekete was released from the hospital in time to board a plane to return home to his family in Jerusalem — with 20 stitches to be seen by his own doctor.
A Jerusalem resident, Fekete had traveled to New York ahead of his sixth child’s wedding. He told JP Updates he is “thankful to G-d it ended this way, because the doctors told me if he would have stabbed me a little deeper in my neck I would have been in a life-threatening situation.”
Police believe the motive behind the attack was robbery and are not classifying it as a hate crime, according to New York’s CBS 2 television news.
There have been more than 1,000 stabbing attacks across New York City since January 1. The number of knife attacks are rising at a 24 percent increase compared to last year, “making NYC subway riders very wary,” CBS 2 News reported.