Grinning pugilist sought in violent chain-snatching at Jackson Heights subway station last month. NYPD
Jan. 8, 2025 By Bill Parry
Police from the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights and Transit District 20 are still looking for a chain-snatcher who targeted a 7 train rider as he waited on the Manhattan-bound platform at the 82nd Street subway station last month.
The robbery occurred just before 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 17, when a stranger approached a 22-year-old and allegedly slugged him in the face. While the victim was stunned by the assault, the perpetrator forcibly removed a gold chain from his neck before running out of the station onto Roosevelt Avenue, police said Tuesday. The 7-train rider sustained minor injuries and refused medical attention at the crime scene.
The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect, who remains at large more than three weeks later, and described him as a smoker who wore a distinctive black Nike baseball cap with an electric blue-colored swoosh logo and bill. He also wore a black winter jacket over a black hooded sweatshirt, black pants, white and black sneakers, and a black tote bag slung over his shoulder.
Anyone with information regarding this attack is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are confidential.
Through Jan. 5, the 115th Precinct has reported four robberies so far in 2025, one more than the three reported at the same point last year, an increase of 33.3%, according to the most recent CompStat report. The precinct has reported one transit crime and a half-dozen felony assaults so far this year, after reporting five assaults at the same point in 2024, an increase of 20%, according to CompStat.
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