The subway rider apparently randomly stabbed by a sick smiling straphanger is a hardworking Manhattan restaurant employee who was coming house from an extended shift when attacked, a pal stated Tuesday.
Roberto Gaspar, 25, was merely trying down at his telephone when the violent stranger approached him from behind on a No. 7 prepare on the 111th Avenue station in Corona, Queens, on Sunday night time, in line with his pal and police sources.
The unidentified attacker – captured in a surveillance picture smiling broadly – then plunged an “unknown sharp object” as soon as into Gaspar’s neck and twice into his again, cops stated.
Gaspar was taken to New York Presbyterian/ Queens Hospital, the place pal Tomas Calel, 35, advised The Put up he now is attached to a ventilator, unable to talk.
“He’s critical. He can’t discuss,” Calel stated in Spanish outdoors the sufferer’s Queens house constructing. “He’s within the ICU. He’s hooked as much as machines.
“The docs say perhaps he’ll discuss, perhaps. We hope he recovers and can have the ability to discuss.
“I really feel dangerous for him,” Calel stated. “He didn’t see something. He doesn’t know who did it.”
Gaspar is initially from Guatemala however has been within the US for seven or eight years — working and sending a refund house to his household, in line with his pal. The sufferer has 4 sisters, certainly one of whom additionally lives within the metropolis, Calel stated.
The sufferer usually works 10-hour shifts 5 days per week at a Manhattan restaurant, the place he “does every part” from cooking to cleansing to dishwashing – and sometimes takes on a sixth day in busy instances to ship cash house to assist his mother and father and three different sisters, Calel stated.
Gaspar takes the prepare to and from work and was headed house when the incident occurred, in line with Calel.
“I’m offended. He didn’t do something flawed,” Calel stated. “I imagine [the attacker] is a nasty man. Why did he do this? I would like them to catch this man.
“He’s laughing,” Calel added as he seemed on the picture of the gleeful suspect. “He doesn’t care what he did to my pal.”
He described his badly injured buddy as “a quiet man” who “doesn’t make hassle” and easily goes house to sleep after his lengthy work days.
Calel stated he plans to go to Gaspar within the hospital, the place the sufferer’s sister – who’s “crying lots” and “scared” – was already gathered along with her husband.
Calel, who works at a special Manhattan restaurant, stated he’s now afraid to experience the prepare at night time.
“Generally I am going [to work] by prepare, typically I am going by bike. I take the prepare at nights, I come house at 10 at nights,” he stated. “I’m afraid to take the prepare now as a result of what occurred to my pal might occur to me, too.”
Anybody with data on the assault is requested to name the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
The general public may submit their suggestions by logging onto the Crime Stoppers web site at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on X @NYPDTips.
