Steak Knived on Orient Ave (Eesch!)
img via flickr
A reader wrote in to warn us to keep our wits about things after she was attacked with a steak knife on Orient Avenue around 7:30pm on Thursday. It sounds scary as shit, so I'll let her do the talking:
I've lived on Olive St. for a little over a year and have loved just about everything my off the beaten path neck of the burg has to offer. My love changed slightly on Thursday evening. At 7:30 pm I was walking home along Orient Ave., listening to my ipod, checking out some of the furniture that had been put out for the trash, doing my usual stuff when I was approached by a guy with a steak knife in his hand. I initially did not see the knife and thought that he was approaching me for directions. He demanded my bag and as I dropped my groceries and tried to take off my messenger bag it became tangled with my headphone cord. The man (age 20-22, biracial, approx 6ft and 170lbs,wearing a Mets hat) yanked it from me, and started to leave. When he was a few steps away I panicked and began screaming at the top of lungs. He turned back around, ran the few steps back to me and proceeded to stab me once in the chest - perforating a lung - and once in the arm. Luckily for me the blade broke and was left hanging out of my arm. I think that he would have continued attacking me if this had not happened.
She'd like to warn everybody to keep a heads up, "so that my hip neighbors will know to keep their wits about them - no matter what time of day and no matter how safe the street seems. Converse, ipods and black jeans make you a target to some people." She'd also like to thank her neighbors on Orient for being so neighborly, "holding my hand, applying pressure to my wounds, keeping me awake until the ambulance arrived, calling my friend from down the street (my cell was in my pocket), basically just making me feel not so alone."
Keep an eye out for angry Mets fans with steak knives, everyone, and of course, be smart. Our neighborhood's as safe as any in the city, but we all have our crazies. We're just glad you're OK, anonymous reader.
*Side note - Orient Ave's been a hot spot in the news recently, as it hosts Michel Gondry's recently purchased condo, and is also the site of the back-and-forth squatter drama in the run down house from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (See Gothamist, The Brooklyn Paper)
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Posted by: cheap Jimmy Choo Shoes | January 25, 2010 02:53 AM
Yikes. From one neighbor to another, I was very sorry to hear about this and wish the victim a speedy recovery.
Posted by: Neighbor | October 22, 2008 02:28 PM
You can see my house (right next to Blood Manor) in the picture above. My sister walked by right after this happened and was told by the cop (who couldn't reveal any real deets) that it wasn't anything to worry about. I've only been in the area for a few weeks now - is this out of the ordinary for the area around Cooper Park?
Posted by: Caroline | October 8, 2008 02:23 PM
My roommates and I live right around the corner from where this happened, and I must say it shook all of us. If this makes anyone feel any better, there has been a NYPD officer parked at that part of Orient for the past 2 nights. Makes the walk home from work feel a little safer.
Posted by: Vada | October 8, 2008 12:28 PM
Thats terrible that happened to you, or to anyone else who has been in that position over the years. I lived on Metropolitan just past Olive St. for 4 years and always wondered, though, what would start happening this past year when all these condos started sprouting up and people began to consider it as a possible neighborhood to live in back when I used to be wide-eyed and sweeping my field of vision every tiem I walked down Metro at night. Not even three years ago!
Posted by: Doug | October 7, 2008 05:23 PM
My roommates and I have lived on Sharon for two years -- I heard about the attack from an older gentleman who lives on Orient. We were so upset -- I've thought of the attack every time I've walked down the street, and probably always will. We're so glad you're okay, and thank you for letting us know -- it made me realize that I should be much more aware. Hope the healing goes okay.
Posted by: Stephanie | October 7, 2008 03:43 PM
I'm the person who wrote to Brian. I don't think that my clothing made me a target at all. I just think that in a neighborhood full of young people with a certain tag name - there is a false sense of safety and community.
The guy who mugged me saw a young working person, comfortably walking down the street and living in a sort of trendy neighborhood and seemed to assume that I would be an easy target (which I was.)
It's probably just the painkillers making my thoughts a little jumbled but I really just wrote to the blog so that people in the neighborhood would be more aware than I was last Thursday night. I didn't think ahead and realize that my statements would become fodder for the commenters. If I could do it again I wouldn't have bothered writing to Brian.
Lee Kushnir from CBS is a monster and sent a news truck and reporter to my mother's home on long island (I don't know how she got the address) in an attempt to get some sort of statement. She is disgusting.
Posted by: author | October 7, 2008 01:41 PM
Anyone know how to get in touch with this person? I used to live on Olive Street at the end of Orient, and, as there is more or less only one residential building (81 Olive), I'm wondering if this person used to be a neighbor...
Posted by: Charles | October 7, 2008 11:48 AM
Thank you for sharing this story with us; it sounds pretty horrific and I hope you're getting a lot of support to deal with such a traumatic event. Hopefully, this will encourage everyone to be more vigilant on the street.
Posted by: Julie | October 7, 2008 10:46 AM
angry mets fan. that's nothing new.
Posted by: b | October 7, 2008 06:59 AM
I live right by here and its not ipod territory. I won't even pull my phone out near the park after sunset. All of my roomates have been mugged. I carry a box cutter so when I get my turn, I can get them in the throat.
Posted by: daniel | October 6, 2008 11:25 PM
that is really awful, but i don't understand why she thinks her clothes and 'hipsterness' made her a target, and not just the fact that she was there? i also have to wonder which two races the 'biracial' assailant was.
i hope she heals up ok and isn't too traumatized.
Posted by: al oof | October 6, 2008 10:33 PM
Hello, this is Lee Kushnir from CBS in NYC. I'm looking for the victim in this incident, or anyone else who may know anything about what happened. Please email me at lkushnir@cbs.com, or call me in the newsroom, 212 975 5867.
Posted by: Lee Kushnir | October 6, 2008 04:04 PM
EVERYONE I know who's had a bad experience over the years here in nyc has been walking alone, at night, listening to a fucking ipod!
Take the headphones off on the street. Especially at night!
Posted by: dan | October 6, 2008 03:38 PM