‘Ninja’ with ‘sword’ attacks NYC man charged in 2019 subway bomb scare
A man who set off a panic in the city subways three years ago was attacked in a lower Manhattan train station Tuesday by a man dressed like a ninja and carrying a “samurai sword,” police sources said.
Larry Griffin was banged over the head with the sword encased in its wooden sheath,leaving a bloody gash, authorities said.
Griffin, 29, and his attacker were arguing on a train as it pulled into the Chambers St. station at about 9:20 a.m., with the fight spilling out onto the subway platform and then the street, cops said.
The subway samurai sneaked off after he clobbered Griffin in the head with the sword, still in the sheath, police said.
A bloodied Griffin was found outside the station near Park Place and Church St., a piece of wood from the weapon on the ground nearby. EMS bandaged his head wound and took him to New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital.
Griffin told cops he was assaulted by a ninja with a samurai sword, although the attacker was later described as a man dressed in black wearing a black Marvel comics baseball cap.
Investigators are looking into the possibility that he wasn’t attacked by a metal sword, but a wooden practice sword.
This isn’t Griffin’s first subterranean snafu.
In August 2019, he was arrested for dropping three empty rice cookers in a Manhattan subway station.
The devices were suspected of being pressure cooker bombs since they were left at the Fulton St. station near Williams St., which is adjacent to the Federal Reserve Bank. Turns out they were harmless.
Griffin, a West Virginia native who was homeless at the time, was found a few days later unconscious from a drug overdose in the Bronx.
He was charged with placing a false bomb, a felony. He pleaded guilty in June 2020 and was sentenced to two and a half years in state prison and three years of post-release supervision in August 2020, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said.
Griffin was released and given probation in August 2021, according to the state Department of Corrections.
He is on parole until October 2023, state officials said.
On Tuesday evening, police released surveillance images of the attacker — who was wearing black from head to toe and gradient, reflective sunglasses — in the hopes someone may recognize him.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.
