Two separate incidents involving pepper spray injured more than a dozen people in the city Friday.
“Pepper spray is getting out of hand,” commuter Michael Davis said. “It’s not really cool so New York needs to definitely tighten up.”
The first incident happened near the Union Square subway station. A 77-year-old man sitting on a southbound subway train was sprayed in the face at around 10:30 am in what police are calling an unprovoked attack.
He was taken to the hospital and is expected to be okay. Police said the suspect got away.
Police released surveillance footage of a suspect walking through the subway station wearing a blue jacket, a blue cap and blue jeans.
More than half a dozen subway lines were brought to a screeching halt for about 30 minutes following the incident. Service eventually resumed for all train lines.
“I don’t use it unless I have to,” Jimbo Brown said about using the subway.
“I have three daughters of my own. My daughters come home by themselves from school and I just feel that this is something that needs to be rectified,” subway rider Taheeb Medford added.
In Queens, 13 students were treated for injuries they sustained after being sprayed with pepper spray, according to the Department of Education.
It happened inside the cafeteria at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Bayside shortly before noon, causing a brief evacuation and lockdown. Police said the suspect in this case was a 15-year-old boy.
Attorney Andrew Lieb told NY1 that a person has to be an adult to legally use the chemical.
“You have to be at least 18 years of age to be able to use it, according to the penal law,” Lieb said. “You have to have what's called a justification defense. Mainly what that means is that there's an emergency situation, that you didn't cause it, that it's gonna create an immediate risk of injury to yourself or someone else.”
Police have not indicated whether there was a motive in either pepper spray incident.
The Department of Education said it’s working with the NYPD and FDNY as they investigate the incident at Benjamin Cardozo High School.