Police from the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills and Transit District 20 are looking for a suspect who weaponized a skateboard to bludgeon an E train rider last month.
The attack went down during the early morning hours of Monday, Sept. 16, as the 36-year-old victim was sitting on a southbound E approaching the Forest Hills–71st Avenue station at around 3 a.m. when a stranger approached. The intruder attempted to remove property from the victim’s pocket. The targeted rider began to record the older man with his cell phone. The stranger grabbed a skateboard from another rider and smashed the victim in his head, police said Tuesday.
The suspect got off the train at the Forest Hills–71st Avenue station and exited onto Queens Boulevard. The victim suffered a laceration to his head and was treated at the scene.
The NYPD released surveillance video of the suspect on Tuesday that shows him exiting through the station’s turnstile. He has a dark complexion with a gray beard and mustache and wore a blue Nike hooded sweatshirt, an old Seattle Supersonics baseball cap and blue sweatpants.
Anyone with information regarding this assault investigation is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
Through Oct. 13, the 112th Precinct has reported 85 felony assaults so far in 2024, four more than the 81 reported at the same point last year, an increase of 4.9%, according to the most recent CompStat report. Transit crimes are also on the rise in the precinct with 28 reported so far this year, two more than the 26 reported at the same point in 2023, an increase of 7.7%, according to CompStat.
