Felony assaults were off the rails within the Big Apple’s transit system last month — part of an overall surge in serious crime underground, according to new NYPD statistics.
A total of 168 major felonies occurred on the subways in May, compared to 111 in April, according to data that’s set to be presented at Wednesday’s MTA board meeting. The number of felony assaults, meanwhile, nearly doubled from 37 in April to 65 in May, the docs show.
Adjusted for ridership, the stats show 2.87 crimes per million riders, a 37 percent increase compared to April — and the highest rate since October, when NYPD recorded 149 felonies on the subways and 3.1 crimes per million riders.
Subway crime rates also soared amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 compared to 2019, when NYPD recorded 1.47 felonies million riders.
The public health crisis has also been accompanied by a dramatic drop in ridership, which remains at about half pre-pandemic levels. Weekday ridership in May stood at 2.18 million trips, compared around 5.5 million trips before COVID.
Last month’s crime spike — widely reported at the time — spurred a weeks-long war of words between MTA officials and Mayor Bill de Blasio over the number of NYPD officers patrolling the transit system.
The disturbing spike included 51 robberies, 52 grand larcenies and 65 felony assaults — including a terrifying early morning spree on May 14 in which three teens with alleged gang connections attacked five random straphangers, blinding one victim’s right eye.
MTA Interim Transit President Sarah Feinberg accused de Blasio of “negligence” in the aftermath of the May 14 attacks, which she said should be a “wake-up call” for the mayor, though he dismissed the MTA’s call for more subway cops as “fearmongering.”
But three days later, the mayor relented and pledged to assign 250 extra shifts for cops to patrol the subways at rush hour.
The MTA declined to comment on the new statistics.
