A 47-year-old man was hacked several times in a savage road rage attack in Queens after a two-car crash on the street, and police are now searching for the assailant who fled the scene. The victim was rushed to a hospital, where he is expected to survive the assault that horrified witnesses who watched it unfold in the roadway in broad daylight.
The violence erupted after a two-car crash, according to police and witnesses. What might have ended as an ordinary collision between two vehicles instead exploded into a vicious attack, with the victim set upon and struck repeatedly in the street as stunned onlookers nearby slowly realized the horror of what was happening right in front of them.
A construction worker who saw the assault described a chaotic and brutal scene. He said the attacker chased the victim around the car in circles, a couple of times around the vehicle, before beelining toward the front and going after him again. The man, he said, unloaded on the victim, hacking at him and hitting him over and over and over again.
The 47-year-old victim was struck repeatedly and hacked several times before the attack finally came to an end. He was rushed to a hospital to be treated for his wounds. Despite the ferocity of the assault that played out on the street, he is expected to survive, according to police, though the full extent of his injuries was not immediately released.
After the attack, the assailant took off. Eyewitnesses say he fled in his SUV, then dumped the vehicle about two blocks away and continued on foot, disappearing into the surrounding area. As of Friday morning he remained on the loose, and police had not announced an arrest in connection with the daylight attack in the borough.
Detectives were working to track down the man responsible for an attack so brutal that witnesses said it was the kind of violence you do not expect to see in Queens. Police continued to investigate the crash that set off the assault and to search for the attacker who ran, as the wounded victim was treated at a hospital and expected to pull through.