Outnumbered 5-to-1 by men mostly half his age, a 69-year-old homeless man took justice into his own hands on a New York City subway train, stabbing two of his attackers, killing one.
The unidentified victim was sleeping on a Queens subway train just after midnight on Dec. 22, 2024, when two men — identified by prosecutors as Stalin Moya and Oswaldo Walter — grabbed one of his bags and took it into an adjoining car.
Moya then goes back for more, subway surveillance cameras show, waking up the 69-year-old man in the process. The unidentified victim followed Moya into the second car to try to get his things back, only to be attacked by several men in the group. Others scattered to hide his bags they had stolen. They continue bullying him, shoving and punching the seemingly defenseless victim.
The tables quickly turned when the homeless man pulls out a long knife and begins slashing his attackers, wounding at least two. The men begin running; one of the attackers, bleeding noticeably, trails behind them, leaving the victim standing alone in the middle of an otherwise empty subway car, knife in hand.
Moya died from multiple stabbings, said Queens prosecutors. Pena, 26, survived his wounds. He now faces robbery and assault charges as does Walter, 29, and two other men: Jose Valencia, 35, and Henry Toapanta, 32.
The 69-year-old victim will not be charged, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
“The victim was accosted, without provocation, and our investigation has shown that he defended himself while attempting to retrieve his property,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement.
All of the suspects are homeless, according to the DA.
“Our subways must be safe for the millions of people who depend on public transportation,” Katz said in her statement. “The New York City subway system has been outfitted with cameras and the video recovered in this case is vital to our prosecution.”
New Yorkers, fed up with crime, celebrated the 69-year-old who fought back.
“The only crime here is that he didn’t get all of them,” wrote one commenter online.
The incident is one of several to occur recently on New York subway, which have experienced a surge in violence.
U.S. Marine Daniel Penny was recently acquitted after killing vagrant Jordan Neely on a Manhattan train in 2023. Another passenger, Jordan Williams, fatally stabbed an aggressive homeless man who attacked him and a companion last year on a Brookyln train. Williams was charged with manslaughter and weapons violations but a grand jury ultimately cleared him of any wrongdoing.
On the same day the 69-year-old man was attacked on the Queen subway, a homeless woman, 57-year-old Debrina Kawam, was set afire by 33-year-old Sebastian Zapeta, who allegedly fanned the flames with his shirt. As Kawam was engulfed by the blaze, Zapeta sat on a platform bench and watched her agonizing death, prosecutors said.
And just last week, on New Year’s Day, 71-year-old Linda Rosa was on her way to church services when four teen girls tried to snatch her purse as she exited a Brooklyn subway station.
According to Rosa, she grabbed two of the attackers by their hair and slammed them face-first into the floor, saying, “Oh, you want to fight?”
In the ensuing melee Rosa sustained some punches, broke her glasses and ultimately lost her purse. But in the end, it was the attackers, not the victim, who ran away.
“It could happen to anybody,” Rosa said of the violence. “Now we’re seeing seniors getting attacked. Anywhere — it can happen anywhere, any station. You could be walking down the street. You could be crossing the street.”
