By Madina Toure
A 16-year-old exchange student from China was slashed on her way to school by a “crazed attacker” in Whitestone Wednesday morning, the NYPD and state Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing) said.
At about 8:15 a.m., a male suspect approached the girl near 147th Street and 13th Avenue and slashed her face and neck, according to a police spokeswoman.
No words were exchanged during the attack and the girl was taken to the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, the spokeswoman said.
The victim is an exchange student attending Whitestone Academy at 150-34 12th Ave. and has been in the country for three months, according to Kim, who visited the girl in the hospital.
The student was recovering and was out of surgery, Kim said.
The Whitestone Academy said it was not allowed to disclose any information about the case.
“Fortunately, the assailant missed the major arteries around her neck, but there may be some nerve damages and the doctors are working around the clock to make sure that’s fine,” he said.
Kim said the student is staying with a Chinese-American host family that lives near the school and is here on a permanent basis on a student visa, with plans to pursue both her high school and college education in the United States.
The assemblyman also said her uncle was living nearby and that her mother was in the country just a few months ago with her. He was looking to see if her family can come back to support them and said his office would “actively try to help her with the process.”
“This is 8:30 in the morning,” Kim said. “It could have been any of our children that’s walking to school and it sounds like it was a random act of violence by a crazed attacker with no clear motive, so it could happen again.”
No arrests have been made and the investigation was ongoing, the spokeswoman said.
Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtour
