A man slashed a teenager with a machete inside a laundromat in New York City before fleeing the scene, police said.
The 18-year-old was playing a video game inside the Bright White Cleaning Center at 559 Southern Boulevard in Mott Haven in The Bronx on Monday afternoon, the New York Police Department said.
An unidentified man entered the laundromat and slashed the victim in the left arm at around 2.20 p.m., a police spokesman told Newsweek.
The New York Daily News reported that suspect had missed the victim the first time he swung the machete, but slashed him in the arm the second time.
"The teenager was washing his clothes. Two men came in and did it to him," the laundromat manager told the Daily News. "Suddenly there was all kinds of loud noise and he was lying on the floor, bleeding. It happened so fast. Nobody knew what was going on."
A woman who witnessed the attack told the New York Post that the victim was left badly injured—and may have even had part of his arm severed. Another person, who didn't identify himself, told the newspaper that the attack happened after an argument between two youngsters. "They had beef with each other," he told the Post.
He was taken to NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln in The Bronx in a serious but stable condition after sustaining a severe laceration.
The suspect, described as Hispanic and in his 20s, fled the scene in a black BMW with two other men, the Daily News reporter
The NYPD has released surveillance footage and images in a bid to identify the men wanted in connection with Monday's incident. A $2,500 reward is being offered.
The footage, captured from the street outside the laundromat, shows a vehicle pulling up on Southern Boulevard. A man wielding a machete is seen running in and out of the laundromat.
Two other men are seen getting out of the car and one, wearing a hooded top, is seen throwing what appears to be a bottle into the laundromat. He is seen running back to the car after hurling the item into the building and the vehicle then drives off.
Anyone with information about the identities of the men seen in the surveillance images is urged to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Tips can also be submitted anonymously on the CrimeStoppers website or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
