An apparently irate customer stabbed a security guard in the neck at an Upper East Side bank Friday morning and left him clinging to life after he was told the services he needed had to be done by phone, cops and law-enforcement sources said.
The uniformed private security worker was knifed by the male attacker just after 9 a.m. inside the vestibule of the Chase Bank on East 86th Street near Second Avenue, cops said.
He was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center in critical condition, police said. By Friday afternoon, he was in stable condition, cops said.
Paramedics desperately try to keep a security guard alive by giving him chest compressions after he was stabbed inside Chase Bank. Citizen
The victim was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center in critical condition, police said. Matthew McDermott
Authorities are still searching for the suspect, who fled following the attack. Matthew McDermott“People were screaming,” said fruit stall vendor Md Iqbal, 50, who witnessed the aftermath.
“There were a lot of police.”
The suspect showed up at the bank before it opened and first got into an argument with the security guard after he demanded to be let inside and was told he’d have to wait because the location wasn’t open yet, law-enforcement sources said.
When the suspect saw workers entering the location, he became irate, thinking they were customers, the sources said.
The suspect initially began arguing with the security guard because he wasn’t allowed into the not-yet-open bank.
The attacker later returned when the bank opened, met with a clerk and became enraged again when he was told the services he needed couldn’t be done at the bank and had to be handled by phone, according to the sources.
At that point, the suspect started to cause a scene and was asked to leave by the bank’s manager but before leaving the location, he stabbed the security guard in the vestibule, the sources said.
The bloodied guard was later discovered by a worker.
Hours after the incident, cops are still looking for the attacker.
He is believed to be Hispanic with long, curly hair, and was last seen wearing a white shirt.
Additional reporting by Gabrielle Fonrouge
