MANHATTAN – It looked like something out of a horror movie. Just inside the entrance to 211 East 81st Street was a trail of blood, a soaked rug, bandages and rubber gloves scattered around the hallway— where police had stopped the bleeding after a man was slashed inside the building just before 6:50 am Saturday morning.
Investigators say officers rushed to the scene after getting a 911 call about an assault in progress, only to find a 41-year-old man— who neighbors say lives in that same building located near Third Avenue— with cuts to his left arm bleeding heavily.
Quick-thinking cops, including Officer Bott with the NYPD’s 19th Precinct, covering the Upper East Side, used a tourniquet carried on his utility belt to stop the man’s heavy bleeding all over the hallway as they waited for paramedics to arrive.
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Exclusive photos from the scene, taken by Upper East Site, show the gruesome situation officers came upon.
Police say their preliminary investigation revealed that there was a dispute between the victim and neighbor Saturday morning, when the situation escalated and the woman slashed the man with a knife.
After the attack, the suspect barricaded herself inside an apartment, according to police communications, refusing to come out for officers on the scene— so the NYPD’s specially-trained Emergency Services Unit was brought in to make entry.
Within a matter of minutes of the six ESU officers heading into the building clad in body armor, carrying a rifle, shield, hammer and electric saw, they came right back out— behind them officers escorting the handcuffed suspect, 47-year-old Bethany Pagan to an NYPD cruiser waiting nearby.
Investigators say a knife was recovered at the scene and Pagan is now charged with assault.
According to the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter— a non-profit organization that seeks to provide a home for unhoused New Yorkers— the building at 211 East 81st Street has been used as a residence since 1985.
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The Yorkville building houses 65 people who NCS says have been “seriously affected by extreme poverty, homelessness, mental illness, substance abuse… and trauma.” On-site staff is said to include social workers, case managers and a part-time psychiatrist.
The 41-year-old slashing victim, who has not been identified, was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center for treatment in stable condition.
Upper East Site reached out to NCS for comment but did not hear back.
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