Police from the 108th Precinct in Long Island City and Transit District 20 are looking for a suspect who they say weaponized a milk crate to attack a man inside the Queens Plaza subway station in late January.
Police say the violent outburst occurred on the night of Wednesday, Jan. 28, as a 27-year-old man was walking through a passageway at the station at around when a crazed stranger ran up behind him and smashed him in the face with the crate causing a laceration to the victim’s eye in a seemingly random attack. There is no indication that the suspect and his victim exchanged any words or bumped into each other while walking through the passageway prior to the attack, an NYPD spokesman said Monday, adding that it is also unknown where the milk crate came from.
The aggressor fled the scene on foot in an unknown direction.
EMS responded to the Queens Plaza station and transported the victim to Mount Sinai Queens Hospital in Astoria, where he was listed in stable condition.
The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect as he walked through the passageway and described him as having a dark complexion with a long black and gray beard. He wore a black Ecko Unlimited sweatshirt with red and white lettering across the chest over a gray hooded sweatshirt with a black jacket with gray and white stripes, black sweatpants, brown shoes and a black knit ski cap.
A reward of up to $3,500 is being offered for information that leads to his arrest and indictment.
Anyone with information regarding this assault investigation is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 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 strictly confidential.
Through Feb. 8, the 108th Precinct has reported 25 felony assaults so far in 2026, one more than the two-dozen reported at the same point last year, an increase of 4.2%, according to the latest CompStat report. Transit crimes are way up in the precinct with ten incidents reported so far this year, nine more than the one case reported at the same point in 2025, an increase of 900%, according to CompStat.
