A man was stabbed in the gut in front of a Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in Ridgewood last week, and his attacker remains at large nearly a week later.
Police from the 104th Precinct in Ridgewood reported that the bloody assault occurred on the night of Thursday, Jan. 9, when the victim and his assailant began to argue in front of the fast food joint located at 62-58 Fresh Pond Road near the intersection of Metropolitan Avenue at around 6:35 p.m.
The verbal dispute escalated into violence when the suspect pulled out a knife and stabbed the 40-year-old man in the stomach, and then fled the location southbound on Fresh Pond Road toward Menahan Street.
EMS responded to the crime scene and rushed the injured man to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect on Saturday that shows him clutching the blade in his right hand as the altercation intensified and described him as having a dark complexion. He wore a black jacket, black cargo pants, black sneakers, and a black baseball cap with a white logo on the crown. He had a black bag over his left shoulder.
A reward of up to $3,500 is being offered for information that leads to his arrest.
Anyone with information regarding this attack 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 confidential.
Through Jan. 5, the 104th Precinct has reported three felony assaults so far in 2025, two fewer than the five reported at the same point last year, a decline of 40%, according to the most recent CompStat report, which does not account for the Fresh Pond Road stabbing on Jan. 9.
