The New York Police Department released new photos on Sunday showing the alleged suspect in the fatal stabbing of a sleeping man in the city's subway station and shows the believed perpetrator covered in clothing from head to toe.
Authorities identified the victim as 32-year-old Akeem Loney who was riding a northbound No. 2 train at around 12:17 a.m. They revealed that the suspect supposedly used a knife to stab the unwary man as the train entered Penn Station in Midtown.
Horrific Unprovoked Attack
Officials believe the attack to have been an unprovoked incident with a law enforcement source saying that the victim had a low-level rap sheet. They added that the man has not been in trouble for "quite some time."
The horrific crime also comes as New York City struggles to address the issue of rising violent crime in the region. During the week of Nov. 8 to Nov. 14 this year, transit crimes soared by 140%, from 22 to 53 incidents, compared to the same period last year. At the time, ridership was down because of the coronavirus pandemic, the New York Post reported.
The victim is a known street soccer whiz and was immediately brought to Bellevue Hospital after the attack, where he, unfortunately, lost his life an hour later due to the severity of his wound. Reed Fox, Loney's former coach, said that the soccer player was one of the best street players he had ever seen.
Authorities said that after the brutal attack, the suspect quickly ran out of the station and police are still asking the public for help in identifying and locating the criminal. Loney's former coach works for Street Soccer USA, where everyone knew the victim by his nickname "Lonny." The organization extends a helping hand to vulnerable communities using soccer and gives them access to social services in an attempt to help them get out of homelessness.
In a statement, Fox said that Loney wanted to be around the game, wanted to play, and wanted to become a coach in the future. The coach said that the soccer player was "really nice" after he had spent a lot of time with him, the New York Daily News reported.
Moving Out of Homelessness
Fox and his mother also helped the victim move into an apartment near Crotona Park in the Bronx roughly three years ago. The coach said that they got a truck to help Loney move into his new home. He said that he had not seen the soccer player for about a year and thought that he may have re-entered the city's shelter system.
Police revealed that the suspect in Loney's murder was last seen wearing a white baseball cap, a gray jacket, a white shirt with an orange and black checkered hood, black pants, black shoes, and a black face mask. An image of the criminal was captured by surveillance cameras and shared with the public.
The crime took place after another man was slashed across the neck during a dispute on an A train near the West 4th Street-Washington Square Station in Greenwich village. Reports revealed that the victim, who was brought to Lenox Health Greenwich Village and is in stable condition, did not know the assailant, People reported.
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