An off-duty New York City police officer was stabbed early Wednesday morning in the Bayside section of Queens, touching off a manhunt for two suspects who fled the scene. Police say the attack unfolded on a stretch of local businesses, and by daybreak the area had been sealed off as investigators combed the scene for evidence and worked to piece together exactly what had happened.
The stabbing took place at 39th Avenue and Bell Boulevard, a busy commercial corner in Bayside. Officers cordoned off the block in front of a row of storefronts, with the crime scene remaining active well into the morning. A towel could be seen left behind on the ground, and no one was being allowed to walk up or down the block as detectives processed the area.
According to police, the violence grew out of a verbal dispute. Investigators say there was an argument between two men and the off-duty officer outside one of the businesses on the block. At some point the confrontation turned physical, and the officer was stabbed in the right hand before the two men got away from the scene.
The wounded officer was rushed to a local hospital for treatment. As of Wednesday morning, he was listed in stable condition, an outcome that offered some reassurance even as the investigation into the attack was only beginning to take shape in the hours immediately after the stabbing.
The two suspects, meanwhile, remained at large. Police said they were searching for the pair and trying to establish their whereabouts, with the block around Bell Boulevard held as a frozen crime scene to preserve any evidence that might help identify the men or reconstruct the sequence of events that led to the stabbing.
For now, key questions remain unanswered, chief among them what set off the dispute in the first place. Detectives said they were still working to determine why the confrontation happened, and police urged anyone with information that could help the investigation to come forward and contact them as soon as possible.