Filipino American man slashed in the face while riding NYC subway

Noel Quintana received nearly 100 stitches on his face after an attack on the New York subway. | Photo courtesy of ABC7 New York

A Filipino American man received almost 100 stitches after he was slashed across the face by another passenger on the New York City subway last week.

Noel Quintana, 61, was riding the L train to get to work in Harlem on Wednesday, February 3, when a man walked by and kicked the tote bag that Quintana had set on the train floor, according to a New York Daily News report.

When Quintana confronted the man after he noticed his bag being kicked again, the man took out a box cutter and slashed Quintana across the face from cheek to cheek.

None of the passengers reportedly came to Quintana’s aid, according to the report. He got off the train, and was only able to get help from a ticket booth attendant who called 911.

Quintana was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment.

“I feel surprisingly OK. I can tolerate it,” Quintana told the NY Daily News about his injury.

He added, “Once in a while I take some pain relievers just to ease my pain. What bothers me is my face is still swollen, (and) that’s why I feel strange.”

The assailant was able to flee when the train stopped at First Avenue and 14th Street.

The New York Police have released images of the man and are asking the public’s help to find him. The assailant was described as between 20 and 30 years old, wearing a black mask with a Louis Vuitton logo, a black North Face jacket, red bandana, and light-colored sneakers.

Quintana said this isn’t the first time he experienced a violent encounter on the subway.

Two years ago, he was mugged and socked in the face when he alighted from the subway’s Manhattan station.

“I fell on the ground, but it was nothing like this,” he told the news outlet.

Quintana’s experience is among the latest reported subway attacks in the city, and in a series of troubling violence against older Asian American individuals across the country.

In Oakland’s Chinatown, a viral video shows a suspect forcefully pushing a 91-year-old man to the ground. Actors Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu are offering a $25,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest in the attack.

In late January, 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee, who was originally from Thailand, died from injuries after Antoine Watson, 19, knocked him to the ground while on his morning walk in the Anza Vista neighborhood of San Francisco.

A fundraiser for Ratanapakdee’s family has raised over $52,000.

From March to December 2020, Stop AAPI Hate, an online reporting tracking anti-Asian hate incidents, received 2,808 reported incidents of racism and discrimination targeting community members, as previously reported by the Asian Journal.

Ritchel Mendiola

Ritchel Mendiola is a staff writer and reporter for the Asian Journal. You can reach her at [email protected].

16 Comments
  1. The assailant was described as between 20 and 30 years old, wearing a black mask with a Louis Vuitton logo, a black North Face jacket, red bandana, and light-colored sneakers.

    Really, no ethnic description?

  2. I’m really getting tired of these low iq criminals being able to be loose like this. LET THESE CRIMINALS ROT IN JAIL! Cheap life living like violent animals.

  3. As a New Yorker, I am so saddened that the other people on the train did nothing to help this man. I know we don’t want to invite an attack on ourselves, but really? No one could have helped this man?

  4. Everyone, not just Asians related to this story, should basically carry with them deterrents and semi-weapons to defend themselves.

  5. God bless Mr. Quintana & may the law enforcers apprehend the criminal & apprehend him to the fullest extent of the law.

  6. When race is not mentioned, you can assume the assailant was white. Media outlets loves to start off a description of “black male”…..

  7. @Cassey, this may been true many years ago, but it’s certainly not true anymore. As in this particular case the suspect is black. The media has little incentive to report if a suspect is black, since our “system” is constructed to view any racial disparities that might make blacks look bad as “systemic racism”. Whereas if it’s a white suspect, no such charges can be flung at them. In fact, here’s a little What If scenario for everyone to consider: given that several of the recent physical assaults against Asians have been done by blacks (with media almost never reporting that the suspect’s are black, but you can see it in the videos), one has to wonder what would have happened if most of the attackers had been white. Is it difficult or easy to imagine the following – the bulk of mainstream media reporting that the suspect’s are white and framing the attacks as yet another example of “white supremacy” and “systemic racism” and saying these attacks are the inevitable result of Trump continuing to use the phrases “Chinese virus” after most of the media had stopped? On CNN the other night Chris Cuomo continued to blame Trump for these attacks even though they are primarily being done by black men in liberal cities. The media is at risk of being deemed racist if they point out the suspect is black, but pointing out that the suspect is white is embraced because it suits the “systemic racism” narrative.

  8. Just to prove how absolutely idiotic you are, it’s actually the opposite and while sheep are marching against “white nationalism”, the assailant was black.

  9. This whole article is race baiting. How are three unrelated, factually different incidents race related? The man that got slashed had a confrontation on the train, he wasn’t randomly targeted. This propaganda was made to cause division and deter the political rise in the black community by reestablishing the pecking order between minorities. The real truth, Asians are still in the hood during these economic and mentally unstable times.

  10. What can’t a black person be racist? If the attack was racially motivated then it’s racist period!

  11. @Cassey – looks like the one responsible for the attack is Jorge Devis-Milton, but I can’t find anywhere that says the race or ethnicity. Based solely on the name because that’s all I have to go off of, it doesn’t sound like he is white, but I very well may be wrong.

  12. 20 and 30 years old, wearing a black mask with a Louis Vuitton logo, a black North Face jacket, red bandana, and light-colored sneakers his online my newspaper just copy paste above description it comes up from 20 to sneakers , left out his race as always if they are black just white men and Karen’s just really racist against whites in the news online like all people of any color can be blamed just ignorance what white supremacy ? If I go to China can I compline of Chinese supremacy ? I’m born here so I’m a supremacist because I’m white?

  13. @VTREV you are talking about a different case, one which happened way before this slashing attack. The attacker is definitely black but in the US you have to think 5 times now before saying anything against them publicly

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