2 men stabbed near Central Park on Upper West Side

1 min readUpdated July 23, 2026

Back-to-back stabbings struck Manhattan's Upper West Side within minutes of each other Thursday afternoon, leaving two men hospitalized, NBC New York reported.

Around 1:30 p.m., a man approached a 57-year-old from behind near West 84th Street and Central Park West and stabbed him in the back unprovoked, police sources said. The suspect then made his way to 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, where a 50-year-old man was stabbed in the chest just minutes after the first attack.

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A bystander spotted the suspect going into a building on Amsterdam Avenue, which led to a person of interest being detained roughly an hour after the stabbings, NBC News reported.

Law enforcement sources said investigators did not believe the victims — one Asian, one Jewish — were singled out because of their identities. A hate crime designation remained under consideration, though authorities said nothing gathered so far pointed to bias as a motive.

As of Thursday afternoon, no clear motive had emerged, and investigators had yet to determine whether the men knew their attacker or were targeted by chance.

Update, July 23, 2026: Witnesses told NBC News that the attacker yelled "Allahu Akbar" during the stabbings. The existing article noted a hate crime designation remained under consideration, with authorities saying nothing gathered so far pointed to bias as a motive. (per NBC News)

Two men stabbed in back-to-back attacks on Manhattan's Upper West Side

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