{"id":323293,"date":"2026-08-17T18:06:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T18:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/323293\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T18:06:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T18:06:24","slug":"teenage-tourist-stabbed-in-unprovoked-attack-inside-mcdonalds-near-times-square-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/323293\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenage tourist stabbed in &#8216;unprovoked&#8217; attack inside McDonald&#8217;s near Times Square: sources"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A 19-year-old Australian tourist was stabbed and\u00a0seriously\u00a0wounded\u00a0in an unprovoked attack\u00a0at a Midtown Manhattan McDonald\u2019s early Monday,\u00a0police and law enforcement\u00a0sources said.<\/p>\n<p>The victim was sitting and eating\u00a0inside the fast-food eatery on\u00a0Eighth Avenue\u00a0near Penn Station around 2 a.m. when he was stabbed in the rib cage and the back, the sources said.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.33333333;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40376756\" width=\"787\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/police-seen-mcdonalds-restaurant-8th-137687574.jpg\" alt=\"An NYPD police car with flashing red lights is parked outside a McDonald's restaurant at night.\" class=\"wp-image-40376756\"  \/>The NYPD at the scene of where a 19-year-old Australian tourist was stabbed inside of a Midtown McDonald\u2019s on Aug. 17, 2026. Robert Mecea for New York Post<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.33333333;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40374337\" width=\"787\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/police-seen-mcdonalds-restaurant-8th-137687573.jpg\" alt=\"Two police officers stand in a McDonald's restaurant cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape.\" class=\"wp-image-40374337\"  \/>Police officers investigating the stabbing inside the McDonald\u2019s restaurant on 8th Ave. and 35th St. in Manhattan. Robert Mecea for New York Post<\/p>\n<p>Words were exchanged between the victim and his attacker, but sources said the horrifying attack was largely unprovoked.<\/p>\n<p>Police arrested 25-year-old Juan Mercedes at the scene and charged him with second-degree assault.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mercedes, who is from Port Charlotte, Fla., was in custody pending arraignment later on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The tourist, who was not immediately identified, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital and listed in stable condition.<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 19-year-old Australian tourist was stabbed and\u00a0seriously\u00a0wounded\u00a0in an unprovoked attack\u00a0at a Midtown Manhattan McDonald\u2019s early Monday,\u00a0police and law&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[75,23794,57,360,9,24,55,54,56,2442,2027,58],"class_list":["post-323293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-manhattan","tag-mcdonalds","tag-metro","tag-midtown","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-stabbings","tag-times-square","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}