A man had four of his fingers chopped off in a machete attack in New York City on Friday morning.
Newsweek has contacted the New York City Police Department out of hours via email for comment.
What To Know
Tayquon Young, a 34-year-old man from Bronx, was walking his dog at the corner of Southern Boulevard and East 178th around 11:30 a.m., the New York Post reported, when he came across another dog walker.
Young’s pit bull, called Chanel, allegedly began trying to play with the other man’s smaller dog, the news outlet reported.
Young told the Post that he was on the phone to his wife at the time, and that, while Chanel was on a leash, the other man’s dog wasn’t on one and approached his 4-year-old pit bull. The interaction angered the man, according to Young’s recollection of the events to the Post, and he then reportedly threatened to cut Chanel’s head off. Young then told the newspaper that the man pulled out a machete from inside his coat.
Young tried to put out a hand to grab the blade, which measured over 2 feet long, and that was when he lost nearly all of his fingers.
Young told the Post: “I was in disbelief . … I knew that the fingers were missing, I knew that, but I didn’t want to look down.”
He said to the news outlet that, rather than helping him, people were recording the incident. “They was just watching, recording it on their phones to post on their websites. People wasn’t helping me. I had to tell them to call 911. The owner of the store son was recording me. That’s crazy,” Young told the Post.
The man who had wielded the machete fled the scene, and Young was rushed to the hospital. His dog Chanel was uninjured, according to ABC 7.
Only three of his four fingers were found, according to the Post, and reattached to his hand over the course of 13 hours of care in the hospital.
Speaking while in hospital, Young said: “I don’t feel it at all. They numbed it. I’m all right. I’ve been sleeping.
“I’m still in shock. Every time I close my eyes, I think about it. When I wake up from sleep, I see it, the hit, the impact, the feeling of the brush,” he added.
Per the Post’s report, Young’s family are now worried for his future, given his job as a maintenance worker for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
What People Are Saying
Kimtreese Young, Young’s mother, told the Post: “There is a maniac running around with a machete cutting up people’s hands. I hope the city finds this man and gets him the help that he needs.”
Andrew Price, Young’s uncle, told the Post: “The Bronx has gotten so bad, it’s almost become normal to hear about violence. It happens every day.
“It makes you think, ‘Should I carry a weapon now?’ Because anybody could have something. My nephew was unarmed. I’m just happy it was a finger, and not his whole hand, or his life.”
What Happens Next
An investigation is still ongoing into the incident, according to Fox 5, and police believe the attacker to be around 40 to 50 years old, and about 5 feet 10 inches tall.
He was reported as wearing a tan bucket hat, gray hooded sweatshirt, green vest, and tan boots at the time of incident, the outlet added.
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