Police say this is the man who slashed a random pedestrian in the East Village on Jan. 16, 2016. (Photo: NYPD)
EAST VILLAGE, Manhattan – A slasher accused of randomly attacking a man in the East Village has been taken into custody, police confirmed at a press conference on Thursday.
Francis Salud, 28, was arrested at his apartment at East 4th and Second Avenue Thursday morning in connection with the Jan. 16 attack on East 6th Street and police say he is connected with at least one other slashing in the city.
Anthony Smith
Police say the victim in the most recent attack, 30-year-old Anthony Smith, was knocked to the ground by the suspect then sliced with a sharp object. He suffered a large cut to the right side of his face and a small cut to his back, police said.
The victim was taken to a hospital, treated and was released. He credited his coat for saving his life during the random attack.
“I was lucky my leather jacket stopped the knife,” Smith said. “If it didn’t, I would have been dead.”
At the press conference on Thursday, officials say the previous slashing happened on October 18 on First Avenue which involved a dispute in a backyard garden of Bellevue Hospital with another man over a cigarette.
The victim needed 73 stitches on the left side of his body.
