Sexual Assaults, Robberies, Attempted Murders in Lower Manhattan
A slew of indictments, convictions, and manhunts for suspects are among recent developments related to street crime in Lower Manhattan. On September 20, a sleeping female victim, whose name is being withheld, was molested on the E train at the World Trade Center station by an unknown man. Following the assault, the suspect fled onto the streets of Lower Manhattan.
On September 10, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg announced the indictment of Brandon Balfour for attempted murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree, and two counts of robbery in the first degree. These charges stem from an August 6 attack in which prosecutors allege that Mr. Balfour, wearing a mask, approached a non-verbal woman on a northbound 3 train at the Wall Street station, drew a 16-inch knife, and stabbed her in the back, arm, and hands, and then stole her mobile phone. The victim, whose injuries included a punctured diaphragm and collapsed lung, survived. Mr. Balfour, whose image was captured on surveillance cameras, was arrested two days later in Queens, and is being held without bail. No trial date has been set.
On September 29, 43-year-old Samuel Junker was sentenced to ten years in prison for an August 2023 attack in which he shoved 34-year-old Wan Xu onto the subway tracks at the Chambers Street station of the 1, 2, and 3 trains. Prosecutors had sought the maximum sentence of 12 years for the charge of a single count of attempt assault in the first degree, to which he pleaded guilty in July.
Also on September 29, Patrick Robles was sentenced to ten years in prison and ten years of post-release supervision for a June 2023 attempted rape aboard the northbound J train, as it approached the Chambers Street station. At around 9pm, according to court documents, he approached the unnamed victim with his pants undone. When the victim attempted to flee at the Chambers Street stop, Robles grabbed her by her coat and pulled her back onto the train, pinning her to the floor and repeatedly punching her in the face. When she offered him cash to stop the attack, he robbed her. As the train pulled into the next stop, at Fulton Street, she was able to flee. Police arrested Robles several days later, based on footage from subway security cameras. In June, he pleaded guilty to one count of attempted rape in the first degree.
On September 12, Manuel Morales received a sentence of two-to-four years stemming from a March 2020 Chinatown attack on a 37-year-old Asian man, perpetrated with scissors, while shouting racist invective. A jury recently found Morales guilty of one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and one count of menacing in the second degree, as a hate crime.