A man walking along Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills found himself face to face with a stranger wielding a knife on Wednesday afternoon, according to police, in an encounter that ended with threats but no injuries before the suspect took off on foot. The confrontation unfolded at approximately 3:10 p.m. in front of 107-55 Queens Boulevard, leaving investigators searching for a man who has not been identified.
According to NYPD Crime Stoppers
, the 36-year-old victim was approached by an unidentified individual who engaged him in a verbal dispute. During that exchange, the individual displayed a knife and made verbal threats before fleeing on foot to parts unknown, the agency says. No injuries were reported in connection with the encounter.
Police have not released a physical description of the suspect, and it remains unclear what sparked the dispute or what exactly was said during the confrontation. NYPD Crime Stoppers is asking anyone with information to come forward, either by sending a direct message to @NYPDTips or by calling 1-800-577-8477 (TIPS). The agency is offering a reward of up to $3,500 for a tip that leads to an arrest and indictment, and all calls can be made anonymously.
The reward program is a longstanding partnership rather than a direct police-department payout: NYPD Crime Stoppers dates to 1983, while the New York City Police Foundation administers the program, distributes rewards and coordinates public-awareness campaigns. The foundation says rewards and education are funded through donations. The NYPD’s program description says a reward of up to $3,500 is available for anonymous information that leads to the arrest and indictment of a violent felon.
New York law defines second-degree menacing to include intentionally placing or trying to place someone in reasonable fear of injury by displaying a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument; the offense is classified as a class A misdemeanor. Whether those elements apply in this case—and what charge, if any, might follow—has not been announced by police. The state statute sets out the legal standard, which turns on more than the presence of a weapon alone.
A Familiar Scene Along the Boulevard
This isn't the first time a knife has been pulled during a street-level dispute near Forest Hills. Back in August, QNS reported that police sought a woman accused of threatening a fellow rider with a knife following a verbal dispute aboard a Queens-bound E train near the Forest Hills-71st Avenue station. In that case, the suspect allegedly pulled out the knife, threatened the other rider, then exited the train and was last seen boarding an MTA Q76 bus on Queens Boulevard at Continental Avenue, the outlet's report notes.
A separate incident in the same stretch of Forest Hills predates both: in April 2024, a 71-year-old man was attacked just before 8:30 a.m. while exiting a Q64 bus at the corner of 108th Street and Queens Boulevard. The suspect in that case allegedly spat on the victim and then struck him in the face, causing a laceration under his left eye and bruising, per the same outlet's account. Police offered an identical reward of up to $3,500 for information leading to an arrest in that case as well.
What the Numbers Do — and Don't — Show
Precinct-level statistics offer a mixed picture of safety trends in the area, though they describe different categories of crime than Wednesday's menacing report. The 112th Precinct recorded 14 transit crimes through Aug. 9, 2026, five fewer than the 19 reported over the same period in 2025, a 26.3 percent decline, according to QNS. By contrast, the precinct had reported 28 assaults through April 14, 2024, six more than the 22 logged at the same point the prior year, a 27.3 percent increase, the outlet reported at the time. Those figures track transit crimes and assaults specifically, not menacing incidents like the one reported Wednesday, so they don't establish a broader pattern tied to this case.
The 112th Precinct covers both Forest Hills and Rego Park, but precinct-level figures are not a count of every kind of incident or a measure of the risk from this specific encounter. The NYPD publishes precinct statistics and says its crime data are organized into major crime categories, so the transit-crime and assault figures cited above provide context for those categories—not a direct measure of knife threats. The precinct’s boundaries and published statistics offer a broader frame for the neighborhood.
For now, the man who allegedly pulled the knife on Queens Boulevard remains at large, and investigators are relying on the public for leads. Anyone with information is urged to contact NYPD Crime Stoppers through the channels listed above.
