By Gus Saltonstall
A woman was slashed midday Tuesday in Central Park, a police spokesperson confirmed to West Side Rag.
A 24-year-old woman was on Center Drive, parallel to 63rd Street, around 1:30 p.m., when a 38-year-old woman slashed her multiple times, before taking her belongings and fleeing the scene, police said.
The victim was rushed to a hospital in stable condition, NYPD added.
ABC7 reported that the dispute on Tuesday involved two Central Park food vendors who had an ongoing feud over territory in the park. The suspect fled with her husband and son after the attack, ABC7 added.
This is a developing story; please check back in for updates.
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We cannot always be 100% vigilant of our surroundings when we go out. There is a limit to what we can see, sense, and hear. These random acts have the element of surprise and happen so fast. How absolutely frightening for that poor woman. Hopefully, she will recover physically and emotionally.
The story pretty clearly says it wasn’t random.
There was a clear point being made that too many people point fingers at women for walking alone in the park, whether it be day or night, and blame them for being victims. It shouldn’t matter if it was random or not.
I don’t think we know yet if it was random?
Vendor dispute, totally random. Sure.
I’m steering clear of all the vendors from now on. It’s like drug dealers and turf. Who knew?
Customers have nothing to fear. But this is why you’ll rarely see two ice cream trucks parked on the same corner.
Once again, just blocks from a large housing project in the West 60s.
Simple solution: facial recognition cameras in those buildings to see when people are there or not.
It’s taxpayer-paid, free housing for people that also happens to generate a lot of crime. It’s the least we can do.
How is an incident in Central Park related to the NYCHA housing on Amsterdam ?
Come to think of it, this park location is pretty close to some shady billionaires living on CPW.
Huh?
perfect response.
Big Brother is watching.
Residents of Amsterdam Houses are committing crimes in Central Park related to disputes over vendor turf?
Do tell.
You’re reaching.
Also, NYCHA is not in any manner automatically free housing.
Them Wall Street (“high” finance) generates a lot of white collar crime, should we stop funding Wall Street failures?
I wonder if this was the same scumbag that punched two women the other day?
https://www.westsiderag.com/2026/03/05/man-randomly-punches-2-women-on-the-upper-west-side-police
No, read the article. The slasher was a woman.
Yeah, i see that now. I think the article was updated after i posted.
ABC news is saying it was a dispute between food vendors who have been sparring with each other since before Christmas.
You mean it [likely] wasn’t NYCHA residents? I’m shocked that Joe UWS above was in error — my world is shaken.
I never said it was definitely NYCHA residents. I’m merely suggesting that it is a logical place to start an investigation.
Nothing to do with NYCHA
Nothing to do with random violence.
It was two food vendors who had a history of dispute that ended with one of them slashing the other.
Did anyone read the article prior to commenting?
Sans evidence, starting with the Amsterdam Houses nearly half mile away is not logical. Unless your point is to profile and waste resources.
So are you saying one shouldn’t assume before knowing actual facts?
You have to start somewhere to learn the “actual facts.” They don’t just appear.
You make a hypothesis and then you test it. It’s how medicine gets invented, and how police do investigations.
So why not hypothesize that the Dakota is equally nearby so the investigation should start with the wealthy residents who live there? Just as logical as your hypothesis.
The vendor part seems to have been added later without an updated notice.
If you’re referencing my point about the killing of the Jing Fong manager in 2021 by a reckless e-bike driver, the analogy is false, because there is no way in which someone operating a bicycle or e-bike respnsibly could have killed a pedestrian in, or about to step into, that “protected” Amsterdam “bike” lane.
The park is as busy as I’ve seen it in the last few weeks. She was apparently on the street (from the article) in a well traveled area with many people around. How could there be NO details on the attacker?
No, this was on the south end of the loop.
The street would be the 65th Street transverse, where vendors do NOT set up.
There were plenty of details including the assailant’s age, the fact that she was a regular food vendor in the park, and that her husband and son were with her. All of which point to her identity being known.
that part of the park around the sunken lake is well known for being dangerous
At 1:30 PM?
It is?
this is really starting to get out of control.
as long as the leftist DA refuses to prosecute crimes like this it will only become more dangerous in the city
2009 called and they want their opinion back.
I think it was a personal dispute. Let’s save the blanket statements regarding the city as a whole until we get more details.
This is a cost of being a Sanctuary City
Janet,
What does this have to do with sanctuary cities?
Sure Jan
Not uncommon for two vendors to fight over territory. Maybe skip the knives though next time.
Not as bad as the 70s.
This would have been a perfect opportunity for the NYPD, Err, NYC Social Work anti crime hero squad. Had the slasher just requested an NYSW mediator the whole need for bloodshed could have been eliminated. When people are seeing red and ready to use violence they should take a breath and call NYSW everyone would be happy.
So, ‘crime’ or ‘no crime’? What say ye Mr. ‘Mayor’?
Were the the vendors licensed or did they have permits ?
Maybe they could check where the husband worked during the day ?
A turf war between illegal pop-up vendors, which no one is doing anything about. If the administration can’t see the inherent injustice in charging permitted vendors for licenses while allowing pop-ups, then their is something very wrong with their alleged “socialism”
The article said nothing about pop ups or being illegal or it being a turf war. It might have been really personal. Maybe stop making things up. and you’ll sleep better at night.
The approved vendors in the park would never be fighting about space, because their space is specified in their permit and the can’t just roam around. This is almost certainly the many fruit vendors that are all over the place in the park now.
Alleged socialism. WTH are you talking about?
Exactly. Both were illegal vendors of which there are horses in the park. It’s not safe for anyone. They need to be removed.
Re: “Both were illegal vendors of which there are horses in the park.” What does this sentence mean?
Who would have thought it ?
I am so surprised !
So many of the comments here are so childish and sarcastic. Do you people have nothing better to do than to get on here and insult commenters? It’s painful to read. Even if people make assumptions you don’t like, you can just state your opinion like a normal person. It’s so boring. Kudos to people who really contribute something and aren’t seething with judgment. We are all neighbors….
Idk, randomly accusing people who live in public housing isn’t the most helpful. Feels more hateful than anything. We’ve got enough of that
I agree it the way people deal with it here is sarcasm and rudeness.
Do these vendors have permits? I doubt it. The return of the nice weather will have the fruit vendors out in full force. What a shame that the Park has become a hub of unpermitted vending.
Cite examples from within CP, so not one the sidewalks around CP.
Permits? We don’t need no stinking permits! No fruit vendor is illegal on stolen land.
I mean there’s pretty much a woman saying “mangoes, mangoes“ every thirty feet in Central Park nowadays. Of course there will be turf wars.
Thank you for pointing out one of my pet peeves. I talked with the Central Park Conservancy about the fruit vendors…who sadly have metastasized to now include hat vendors, fuzzy animal vendors etc etc. There clearly is no will to return the park to the oasis it should be. Once one runs the gauntlet of the pedicab peddlers and enters the park one is assaluted by the very noise you describe so well.
Licensed food vendors have specific spots. There are no territorial disputes between licensed vendors. This sounds like 2 unlicensed vendors, who by the way are damaging the park with all the extra plastic garbage they create, fighting over a spot. So in addition to the amount of garbage they are creating, we now have to worry about knife fights. All of this is unnecessary and preventable if parks enforcement was better.
Thanks for saying this. This is why laws exist. And licenses. And what happens when it’s the Wild West. If there were licenses it would be clear who had which territory. And recourse in the event if a dispute. It’s not mean or lacking compassion to require people who do business in the city to follow laws. Or the enforce them when they aren’t being followed. It’s pathetic but predictable. Imagine how many social problems would disappear if laws were enforced. Apparently this is not a victimless crime. And lastly, if someone says licenses are too expensive. Well, how many other free things are provided to people who don’t choose to work? I’m sure there is some non profit or “rich” patron who could gift vendor licenses to those in financial need as a scholarship on their path to self sufficiency. Enough with this being beyond their control.
The city needs to step up the policing of street vendors. Central part is amazing because its a scape from the buzzle of the city. If you allow one vendor you allow all of them and given the amount of money involved, you’d be naive to think that the whole thing is not going to turn into a big old mess. Nip it in the bud now while it’s still manageable.