The panhandler who allegedly stabbed a good Samaritan on a Manhattan train was shown in NYPD surveillance footage released early Tuesday.
Bruce Fuentes, 27, was trying to stop the aggressive vagrant on a southbound B train at 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center station at 2:20 a.m. Monday, according to authorities and the victim.
Then the panhandler, who appeared to be in his 50s, pulled out a pocketknife and stabbed him in the torso before getting off the train and fleeing onto the street, cops said.
Cops believe the balding, goateed man pictured here is the aggressive panhandler who allegedly stabbed a man on a Manhattan train early Monday.
Police were still looking for the suspect, pictured here, Tuesday morning.
Footage released by police shows the balding, goateed man inside the station wearing a black long-sleeved shirt, black sweatpants and white sneakers. He is carrying what appears to be a dark duffel bag with smaller bags attached.
Cops say he is about 5 feet 9 with a husky build.
Police were still looking for him Tuesday morning.
The victim was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition.
Fuentes, a food deliveryman, was taking the train home after a few drinks when he confronted the suspect — who was “pretty much trying to bother people for what he wanted,” he told The Post from the hospital on Monday.
“I just told him, ‘Leave me alone, like just back off.’”
“He just became aggressive and that’s when I had to defend myself,” he said.
“It got ugly. I didn’t realize I was stabbed ‘til I got off the train and saw the blood,” Fuentes added. “Thank God it wasn’t that deep.”
Fuentes, of Sunset Park, slammed the city’s subway system over its soaring crime rates.
“It sucks what’s happening,’’ he said. “The subway system is a mess right now.’’
