Good Samaritan Throws Himself at Knifeman to Save Woman He Was Stabbing in Random NYC Subway Attack

Video captured the horrifying moment a woman was stabbed in an unprovoked attack on the subway before a passing journalist jumped in to save her.

The stabbing unfolded at Union Square station on Wednesday night when 54-year-old Kelli Daley was jumped by a man identified as 22-year-old Joshua Nazario.

Police said Nazario slashed Daley across her left shoulder, collarbone, and upper chest while she was waiting on the southbound N, Q, R platform for the train around 10.10pm.

Sean Conaboy, 52, a freelance cameraman for the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), was finishing a 12 hour shift in Times Square when he saw what was happening and jumped in to stop the attack – tackling Nazario to the ground and restraining him until police arrived.

The incident marked the second stabbing at the station in as many days – and the 17th such attack in the subway over the past two weeks.

Daley, who was taken to Bellevue Hospital in a stable condition for treatment of multiple stab wounds, recounted the horror attack in an interview with the New York Daily News.

‘I just put my glasses on and was just looking at my phone,’ Daley said. ‘Somebody came up behind me kind of like when you see a long lost friend and they hug you.’

Next thing she knew she was being slashed by someone she’d never met.

‘I felt stabbing,’ Daley said. ‘I screamed loud. I kept screaming.

‘My first thought was: “This can’t be happening.” I thought it was like a hug, like someone who knew me. I think he just wanted to stab me. It was very strange.’

Conaboy said before the attack he had noticed something odd about Nazario standing on the subway platform: he was wearing winter clothes, despite scorching weather outside.

‘I looked at his face, as he walked past me,’ Conaboy said. ‘He looked in my eyes.’

Moments later he heard Daley screaming and jumped in to help.

‘It was in that instant that I saw a woman,’ he told the Daily News. ‘She got pulled back out of my line of sight, away from the platform edge, and I heard a scream. And then I saw the knife come out from behind the column, in a full grip in a downward jagged position.

‘I immediately ran to that spot, then I just jumped on his back and I tackled him. Then I was on top of him.

‘At this point, I don’t know where the knife is. At some point in the scuffle, the woman got out and escaped.’

Conaboy described it as a ‘substantially sized knife’ and said he feared that he could be stabbed by Nazario, but thankfully someone had kicked the knife out of his hand before he was wrestled to the ground.

‘I knew as long as he had that knife that I was in very serious danger,’ Conaboy said. ‘I knew if he turned to face me that I’m going to be stabbed.’

Both Conaboy and Daley said the incident is proof that crime is out of control on the subway.

‘This unprovoked violence is inexcusable,’ Conaboy said. ‘The mayor said it’s safe to ride the trains but he has security detail and he’s 6 feet tall. This was a 50-year-old woman.

‘I’m mostly angry at the fact that people can’t simply wait on a crowded platform without getting attacked from behind.’

Daley said of Nazario: ‘I just wish he would’ve gotten the help he needs. I wish I would’ve understood why he was so angry at a stranger.’

Nazario was expected to be charged and arraigned on Thursday.

Police said it was his first arrest in New York City.