15-year-old punched, robbed in Manhattan subway station
Surveillance photo of a suspect wanted for attacking a 15-year-old and stealing his iPhone 11.
NEW YORK - The NYPD is investigating after a 15-year-old boy was punched in the face and robbed while waiting for a subway train in Manhattan.
According to authorities, at around 3:30 p.m. on October 6, the victim was standing on the northbound platform of the No. 1, 2, and 3 trains at the West 72nd Street and Broadway station on the Upper West Side when the suspect approached him and punched him in the face.
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The teen fell to the ground and the suspect continued punching and kicking him in the face and body, before forcibly taking the victim's iPhone 11.
The suspect then fled onto a northbound 1 train and was last seen getting off at the West 137th Street and Broadway station.
The victim sustained minor facial injuries and was taken by EMS to Cornell Hospital.
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On Saturday, Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans to increase the police presence in the city's subway system in the wake of a recent string of high-profile incidents.
The NYPD and the MTA plan to increase the police presence in the subway system by adding 1,200 overtime shifts per day, or about 10,000 overtime hours daily. Officials say the increase will allow NYPD officers to patrol platforms in at least 300 stations during peak hours and transit officers to ride hundreds of additional trains per day, also during peak hours.
Police have released surveillance photos of the suspect in the Manhattan incident, who is said to be in his late teens with a thin build. He was last seen wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt.
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Anyone with information in regard to this incident 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 CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
All calls are strictly confidential.