A 49-year-old man was repeatedly stabbed and doused with pepper spray by a stranger in an unprovoked attack on a Chinatown street on Tuesday, police said.
The victim was walking past the Wai Wah Market on Catherine St. near East Broadway around 9:30 a.m. when the stranger, who was dressed in a blue tracksuit, stormed up and started arguing with him, police and witnesses said.
“They were walking the same direction and one guy sounded like they said, ‘Why you looking at me?’ or something, and then it just started,” Joanne Hung, a cashier at the Wai Wah Market, told the Daily News. “I heard the noise (from the argument).”
As the confrontation continued, the suspect pulled a knife and a can of pepper spray, witnesses said. He repeatedly stabbed his victim in the arm and back before spraying the man in the eyes, Hung said.
“The other guy who cut him had pepper spray,” she said. “The pepper spray was really strong.”
After the suspect ran off, the victim went into the market to ask for water to clean out his eyes, Hung said.
Police investigate a stabbing outside a grocery store on Catherine St. in Chinatown, in lower Manhattan, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News)
EMS took him to Bellevue Hospital, where he was expected to survive.
His attacker ran off and was still being sought by authorities Tuesday.
“The victim, he was conscious, he was talking. He said he doesn’t know that guy,” Hung said. “This is the first time something like this has happened. It was early morning, so it wasn’t a lot of people outside.”