Cops released surveillance photos of a trio of brutes wanted for punching, repeatedly stabbing and robbing a man on a Bronx train last month.
The three muggers, believed to be in their 20s, remain on the lam after the violent May 11 attack, which left 39-year-old Alberto Abreu Contreras knocked unconscious on the E. 167th St. subway station platform in Highbridge.
Surveillance photos show one mugger wearing an olive-green hooded sweatshirt, gray sweatpants and black sneakers. The others are both pictured wearing white jackets, with black masks covering their faces. It was not immediately clear which man stabbed Contreras, cops said.
The victim was on his way home from his job as a valet, riding the No. 4 train heading north around 2:19 a.m. when he was approached by the three men, who ordered him to hand over his 14-karat gold Jesus medallion chain.
When he didn’t cooperate, the trio grabbed the jewelry and pulled the victim out onto the train platform.
“If you don’t give me your stuff I’m going to stab you,” one of the men threatened, police sources told the Daily News.
The crooks then furiously attacked Contreras, punching him in the face and one suspect stabbing him in the abdomen and torso, before they took off with the wounded victim’s chain, EarPods, Samsung Galaxy A23 phone and IDs.
“I was sitting on the train, and a guy grabbed me by my chain through my hoodie,” Contreras told The News a day after the assault. “He dragged me out onto the platform, I held onto the guy for dear life. There was two more guys that came to help him. They said, ‘Let him go’. He was saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’ in Spanish, and he ran down the escalator.”
Contreras was unconscious following the beatdown and said he woke up at Lincoln Hospital, where he was initially in critical condition. After surgery he was expected to recover.
“I still feel the pain,” Contreras told The News. “They put tubes in my stomach to see if there was internal bleeding. It is what it is, this goes with the neighborhood. This can happen to anyone.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls are confidential.