A man with a massive knife went on a stabbing rampage inside a city bus in Harlem, targeting two strangers in a slashing frenzy that left both victims critically injured, officials said Wednesday.
Two NYPD officers flagged down by a shocked witness jumped into action to collar the slasher, and give first aid to the stunned and bloodied victims, officials said.
“It felt like a hot sickle got jammed into my leg. It was a very intense pain,” victim Michael Jones, 44, who moved to Manhattan three years ago from Sacramento, Calif., told the Daily News.
The inexplicable violence exploded on an M100 bus on Amsterdam Ave. near W. 130th St. about 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, when Willy Gomez, 45, allegedly whipped out an 11-inch knife, and without a word, hacked away at two passengers.
“All of a sudden he starts stabbing the guy in the face,” a police source said.
Jones, slashed seconds later, was stabbed in his right thigh, a slice that nicked an artery.
Jones told The News he was sitting in the front of the bus next to some chains that block access to a cordoned-off area when he saw Gomez unsheathe “that behemoth knife, sword, whatever you want to call it.”
He then watched in horror as the madman wordlessly sliced the first victim’s face open. “He didn’t have time to react,” Jones said of the victim.
A few other passengers immediately rushed to the front to flee the frenzy. Jones was the last one through the chains.
“I felt the knife go into my leg,” Jones recounted. “He pushed me and I hit my head on something, probably one of the seats, because I have a gash on the back of my head. I’m on the floor trying to scoot myself away from him and that’s when he stabbed me.”
“But luckily, the bus driver slammed on the brakes and it disoriented him enough to let go. He took out the knife and fled out of the bus,” he said.
When Gomez charged out of the bus, he was confronted by NYPD Officers Andy Alban and Jean Luc Nester, two housing officers who were flagged down.
“The cops were there with their guns drawn, waiting for him,” Jones recalled.
The pair ordered Gomez to drop the knife and took him into custody before racing onto the bus to give first aid to the bloodied victims.
They put gauze on the older man’s gaping face wound, and applied a tourniquet to Jones’ bleeding leg, officials said.
Both men were rushed to Mount Sinai Morningside in critical condition, but have since stabilized, officials said.