Video Shows Suspect Fleeing Scene Of NYC Tourist Stabbing
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are hoping newly-released surveillance video and photos will lead them to a suspect accused of stabbing a tourist in Manhattan over the weekend.
Connor Rasmussen, 23, now back home in Washington State, was experiencing New York City with friends and family. The trip started out perfectly for Rasmusen and his girlfriend, Jordan Asher, with a romantic proposal in Central Park.
It had been a picture-perfect trip.
"It was like the most exciting moment and then one of the scariest moments of my life," Asher said.
Rasmussen had dropped Asher off at her hotel and was headed to get some pizza with his friends in Midtown early Sunday morning when police say a suspect came up from behind him and stabbed him in the head.
"I never heard the guy, I never heard anything -- next thing you know, I'm just getting hit," Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen says he locked eyes with the suspect before they both took off in opposite directions.
"As I'm running, I'm freaking out," he said."I pull my hand out and look — it's a freaking knife, like a steak knife in my hand that I just pulled from my head. I can't even understand what I did."
Surveillance video shows the suspect running into a nearby subway station to get away.
Police say the suspect was wearing a distinctive Michael Jordan jacket.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said people know him from the area, but they don't know exactly who he is.
"We need the public's help," he said. "If you see him, call 911 immediately. We consider him a dangerous male."
Rasmussen says he could have easily been paralyzed — or worse.
"It's a miracle. pretty much if it was any other direction up or down or left or right i would probably be paralyzed or either dead and i just have a flesh wound it doesn't even make sense," Rasmussen said.
His fiance told CBS2 the ordeal has not soured them on New York City — saying this could have happened anywhere. She's mostly grateful to now get to planning their special day.
"Thanking God that we still get to experience our life together," Asher said.
