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Published on January 06, 2025
Jamaica, NY Man Charged with Attempted Murder After Stabbing in Grand Central Over Loud MusicSource: Wikipedia/ Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A disagreement over loud music aboard a Metro-North train escalated into violence when a rider was stabbed in the chest at Grand Central Terminal on Saturday evening, authorities said. The victim, a 31-year-old man, had approached fellow passenger Abdul Malik Little about the volume of music emanating from Little's phone, leading to a confrontation as the train arrived at the station just before 7 p.m., the Metro-North Transit Police Department (MTAPD) reported.

According to the New York Daily News, police said that after the verbal altercation, Little, 46, produced a knife and stabbed the victim twice in the chest. Despite the injuries, the victim was able to leave the train and alert MTA police officers who were on patrol. They apprehended Little at the scene without further incident, and, subsequently recovered the knife used in the attack.

The individual stabbed was transported to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Little, from Jamaica, NY, faces charges of attempted murder, felony assault, and criminal possession of a weapon, the MTAPD reported. At his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court yesterday, Little's bail was set at $50,000 in cash or a $150,000 bond.

Jackie Dombroff, Little's attorney underscored her client's stance during the arraignment. "The way that the press is including this in the trend of stories of stranger attacks on the subway couldn't be further from the truth," Dombroff told the judge, according to a statement obtained by the New York Daily News. She added, "Mr Little doesn’t fit into type of case we see in the press, he wants to clear his name."

This incident marks yet another stark entry in a wave of violent crimes that have afflicted New York City's transit system in recent weeks. The New York Post reported on a series of shocking incidents, including an attack on Christmas Eve where a man slashed two individuals at Grand Central and a horrifying arson attack on December 22 that resulted in the death of a woman on the F train. Concerns over these episodes have prompted Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, to announce a resumption of patrols in the city subway by his group for the first time since 2020.