Police from the 104th Precinct in Ridgewood are looking for a man who attacked a teenager who was walking home from school on the afternoon of Thursday, March 12.
The 15-year-old boy was near the intersection of Myrtle Avenue and Forest Avenue in Ridgewood just before 4 p.m. when a stranger approached him and asked if his name was Johan, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation. When the youngster responded that he was Johan, the suspect punched him in the face with a closed fist.
He then pulled out an unknown weapon that may have been a knife or boxcutter and slashed the victim across his left arm and behind his left ear before running off westbound on Myrtle Avenue toward Seneca Avenue, according to the NYPD.
EMS transported the injured teen to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, where he was listed in stable condition and treated for lacerations to his ear and arm. An NYPD spokeswoman could not provide a description of the suspect on Monday, adding that there are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing.
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 kept confidential.
Through March 15, the 104th Precinct has reported 60 felony assaults so far in 2026, a half dozen more than the 54 reported at the same point last year, an increase of 11.1%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
