A 25-year-old man has been charged with murder after allegedly stabbing a fellow passenger to death in an unprovoked attack aboard a Queens subway train. Disturbing video shows frightened riders scrambling to escape the bloodshed.
Jyrell Thomas allegedly pulled out a knife and attacked 59-year-old Mesias Lojano without warning as the crowded southbound J train approached Woodhaven Boulevard at about 5:20 p.m. Wednesday, police and sources said. Lojano was stabbed three times in the torso and once in the neck.
Lojano, who lived in Ozone Park, was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in critical condition and later died, according to police.
Video posted to Facebook by a passenger captures the chaos inside the rush-hour train. Thomas, who was not wearing shoes, can allegedly be seen repeatedly stabbing Lojano as the victim lay near the subway car’s doors while commuters rushed away.
Lojano raised his hand in an attempt to protect himself, leaving it covered in blood. The attacker then allegedly grabbed him by his hoodie, dragged him from the train and left him on the platform before fleeing.
The knife-wielding suspect ran down the elevated station’s stairs behind several passengers, including a mother and child. The person recording the incident shouted in both English and Spanish, urging others to stop the armed man.
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Several men, including the person who filmed the attack, chased Thomas as he sprinted into the street. The suspect eventually climbed onto the roof of a garage, where police caught up with him and placed him in handcuffs.
Thomas, a Bronx resident who police said did not know Lojano, faces murder and criminal possession of a weapon charges. He was also hospitalized, though authorities did not immediately explain why.
Investigators initially believed the fatal stabbing may have followed a dispute. Police later confirmed Thursday that the attack was unprovoked.
Thomas had been arrested earlier in September in connection with the alleged theft of $23 worth of merchandise from a Target store in the Bronx, followed by an attempt to evade police, according to authorities and sources.
He was charged in that case with petit larceny, obstruction of governmental administration and criminal possession of stolen property, the sources said.
