Posted on May 21, 2021

Manhattan Subway Slashing Spree Was Gang Initiation

Carsen Holaday and John Annese, New York Daily News, May 16, 2021

One of the victims of a horrific subway stabbing spree lost his eye in the attack — and the teenage suspects staged the early-morning rampage as part of a gang initiation, prosecutors said Sunday.

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Taquarious Soto-Burgos, 19; Joseph Foster, 18, and a 16-year-old boy were charged with robbery and weapons possession in connection with the predawn violence. A fourth suspect remained at large.

Prosecutors have “information that the defendant’s violent crime spree on innocent New Yorkers was part of a gang initiation,” said Assistant District Attorney Katherine Byrns at the 16-year-old suspect’s arraignment early Sunday. {snip}

The violence started at 4:20 a.m., when the underage suspect first demanded money from a 44-year-old man on a downtown No. 4 train approaching the Union Square station and then sliced his face, while Soto-Burgos urged him on by yelling “Do it again!” {snip}

The victim escaped, but the teens turned on other passengers, viciously punching a 41-year-old man in the face and slicing a 40-year-old man’s nose open {snip}

Those victims also fled, and the teens stayed onboard to terrorize yet another victim, a 44-year-old man, demanding his money and his cell phone and slashing his head when he resisted {snip}

The marauding teens switched to an uptown D train, where they tried to rob a sleeping 48-year-old man of his backpack. But the victim fought back, and the 16-year-old suspect stabbed him in his left eye {snip}

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