Slashing incidents on the rise

From NBC 4:

Slashings and stabbings are up more than 20 percent in 2016, according to NYPD figures.

There had been 1,325 slashings and stabbings in 2016 through Sunday, compared with 1,088 over the same period in 2015. That represents a 21.78-percent increase in the category of the violent crime, which has been the focus of intense scrutiny by both the media and NYPD brass.

Subway crime, likewise, is up this year. There were 719 crimes on the city's subway system through Sunday, according to the NYPD. That's up more than 6 percent from 2015, which saw 674 crimes on the mass transit system over the same period.

Mad slasher has Whitestone on alert

From NBC:

The apparently random slashing of a 16-year-old girl walking to school in Queens Wednesday morning has shaken neighbors as a local politician says the suspect may have struck before.

The victim, an exchange student from China, was walking near 13th Avenue and 146th Street when a man wearing a surgical mask and gloves grabbed her and slashed her neck and cheek with a utility knife before running off, police said.

The stalker was captured on surveillance video following his victim.

The attack has left families in the quiet residential neighborhood frightened.

State assemblyman Ron Kim said Thursday the suspect may have struck before.

"We've been receiving some calls since yesterday that a similar-looking individual has been harassing females in the neighborhood," he said.

Kim said he has visited the girl, and doctors have told him the attacker missed major arteries but there are still concerns about possible nerve damage and disfiguring scars.