Man Slashed Across Face After Trying To Intervene In Subway Altercation, Needed 15 Stitches To Close Wound
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are investigating after a subway altercation in Brooklyn turned violent.
The man who needed more than a dozen stitches after the incident says he was just trying to do the right thing.
"I can't believe that I get slashed because people are too rude to get out of the door in the subway. Why does that have to be the hill I have to die on, huh?" Zorikh Lequidre told CBS2's Valerie Castro.
Lequidre says he was just trying to do the right thing and help diffuse a tense situation on a crowded L train Friday night.
"Reading my comic book and I hear a commotion behind me, and I look around and I see this guy angrily pushing away this much shorter fella out of the subway," he said. "And I was like, hey man, what are you doing? What's going on? And he wasn't having any of it. 'Mind your own business.'"
As the train left Union Square, the man continued to stare Lequidre down.
"But he started looking at me and he was like, 'What's up, hmm? What's up? Hmm? Whatcha looking at?'" Lequidre said.
At the Lorimer stop in Williamsburg, the man made a sudden move.
"And he swiped at me and I wasn't quick enough and I didn't see the knife or blade that he had and I felt a scratch on my face," Lequidre said. "And the other people were like, dude, you're bleeding! Ahh!"
It took 15 stitches to close up the gash, but despite the injury, Lequidre says he would step in again with the chivalrous act -- much like the medieval knights he's admired, studied and emulates in real life.
"It's kind of like a live-action role-playing game," he said. "But it's not just about the fighting and the armor and the clothes, it's about the comport and the behavior, the courtesy, the chivalry, the honor."
From the battle ring to the subway, Lequidre says he strives to do his part.
"If the world is ever going to be better, somebody's got to do the right thing," he said.
Police say they are investigating the incident and still searching for the suspect.
