“I felt stabbing,” Kelli Daley said. “I screamed loud. I kept screaming.”
A 54-year-old woman was repeatedly stabbed on a New York City subway this week but a Good Samaritan was able to intervene and stop the suspect from causing any more harm, according to reports. Kelli Daley was stabbed multiple times around 10 p.m. Wednesday night by a man unknown to her while waiting for the train at Union Square station, The Daily News reported.
The victim says she was approached from behind when suddenly the suspect began repeatedly stabbing her in the collar bone and back of her shoulder,
The woman was waiting on a southbound platform when the assailant, identified as 22-year-old Joshua Nazario, began his stabbing spree.
But witness and passenger Sean Conaboy, 52, who was on his way back from work, watched the attack and immediately tackled and disarmed the suspect. He was ultimately able to pin him down in a headlock, the News reported.
"I noticed an individual who was acting a little bit suspiciously," Conaboy told NBC New York. "She was pulled backward, she screamed. And then an arm and a hand came out with a fairly long blade, 5 inches maybe, dagger and made arching sweeping motion."
Police eventually came and arrested Nazario, who reportedly suffers from schizophrenia, the Daily News outlet reported.
A family member who recently took Nazario in to live with her said "his medication ran out. That's when [we] found out he was schizophrenic."
The family member added, "he's never been violent. Usually, he's very respectful."
Nazario's arraignment was pending as of Thursday and NYPD confirmed to the outlet that this was his first criminal offense in the city.
Daley is just the latest victim in a spate of vicious stabbings that have plagued the city's transit system since the subway's recent return to full-time operation.
She was the fourth stabbing victim at the Union Square subway station in the last week, according to NBC New York.
The Daily News reported that NYPD has investigated 49 assaults in the subway in the last month alone, which is more than double the number of assaults during the same time last year, data shows.
For weeks MTA and union officials continue to call for more police officers in the subways and on Monday Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he will deploy an additional 250 police officers to the transit system.
