A 64-year-old man was stabbed multiple times in the face, arm and hand early Thursday after an argument turned violent on Winthrop Street in East Flatbush, according to police. The attacker fled the scene in an unknown direction and had not been caught as of Thursday morning.
Police say the confrontation began just before 7 a.m. when the victim got into an argument with another man on Winthrop Street. That man then stabbed the victim with a knife, according to police, striking him once in the left arm, once in the right hand and twice in the face. As reported by News12 Brooklyn, EMS transported the victim to One Brooklyn Health, where he is expected to recover.
The hospital's proximity to the attack likely made for a fast trip to trauma care. Winthrop Street runs directly alongside the NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County medical complex at 451 Clarkson Avenue, which houses one of Brooklyn's few designated Level 1 Adult Trauma Centers and more than 600 operating beds, according to PAGNY.
Investigators Comb Footage, Suspect Still at Large
Investigators are now conducting a video canvass of the area in hopes of identifying the man who fled, per the same News12 report. No arrest had been announced as of Thursday morning, and it remains unknown whether the victim and his attacker knew each other before the argument escalated.
The stretch of Winthrop Street falls within the NYPD's 67th Precinct, which is headquartered at 2820 Snyder Avenue and oversees East Flatbush and Remsen Village, per the NYPD. Should investigators identify and arrest a suspect, causing physical injury with a knife is classified under New York Penal Law Section 120.05 as Assault in the Second Degree, a Class D violent felony carrying up to seven years in state prison, according to legal resources tracking New York assault law. State law also allows for elevated felony assault classifications when a victim is 65 or older, according to Saland Law — though at 64, this victim would fall just under that threshold.
A Corridor With a History of Violence
This is not the first violent knife attack tied to the Winthrop Street corridor. In April, Brooklyn prosecutors secured a 45-year-to-life prison sentence for two men convicted in a fatal ambush shooting on the sidewalk of Winthrop Street, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. And in November 2024, the same office announced a 14-year sentence for an East Flatbush man who threatened a youth with a knife and abducted him near Winthrop Street and East 98th Street back in 2022.
Knife violence has also surfaced elsewhere in the neighborhood recently. In July, a commuter was stabbed in the back at the nearby Sutter Avenue–Rutland Road subway station, prompting a police search for the attacker, according to Citizen. Hoodline has also reported deadly East Flatbush stabbings in recent months, including a multi-victim attack on Avenue D in May that left one man dead and a 66-year-old injured.
Neighborhood Context and Citywide Trends
East Flatbush, designated Brooklyn Community District 17, is home to more than 135,000 residents and is over 88% Black, serving as one of central Brooklyn's major Caribbean-American and African-American cultural hubs, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Citywide, felony assaults ticked up slightly by 0.4% in 2025 to 29,792 incidents, with domestic violence accounting for 41% of those cases, according to NYPD annual statistics. More recent NYPD data from April showed felony assaults falling 6% year-over-year citywide, from 2,580 incidents in April 2025 to 2,426 in April 2026.
Separately, the area has also drawn attention this year for the Empire State Development redevelopment plans at the nearby Kingsboro Psychiatric Center site, which called for street traffic and signal timing adjustments along Winthrop Street at intersections including Utica, Troy and Albany Avenues. For now, police have not released a description of the man who fled Thursday's attack, and the investigation remains open.
