Recidivist Sentenced to Prison for Chelsea Subway Stabbing

All right, crime watchers, take a deep breath, because this one gets complicated even if, on the surface, it first doesn’t appear that way.

The Oct. 22 announcement by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. seemed simple enough: Jamar Banks, 53, had been sentenced to 10 years in state prison for stabbing a 35-year-old man on New Year’s Day, 2025, while both men were aboard an uptown 2 train that had stopped at the Seventh Avenue and 14th Street subway station.

“Jamar Banks stands convicted of an extremely serious assault charge for stabbing a man with a dangerous weapon while onboard a subway car,” said Bragg. “This vicious attack left the victim with significant injuries. New Yorkers deserve to feel safe riding our subways, and we will continue to hold accountable those who cause harm and put their safety at risk.”

Banks pleaded guilty to first-degree assault back on Sept. 17.

If one is curious why Banks did this, after having pled not guilty following his arrest, consider first his crime.

“As admitted in Banks’s guilty plea, and according to court documents and statements made on the record in court, on Jan. 1, 2025, at approximately 9:30 a.m., Banks was sleeping on the seat of an uptown 2 train.”

The D.A.’s summary continues:

“As he slept, a man took Banks’s suitcase, brought it to the adjacent subway car, took out Banks’s blanket, and went to sleep on a subway seat. Banks woke up as the train stopped at the 14th Street and Seventh Avenue station, looking for his suitcase.

Banks entered the adjacent subway car to find his suitcase and approached the man, who was sleeping with Banks’s blanket. Banks ripped the blanket off and yelled at the man while holding a knife. As the victim started to walk away, Banks stabbed him once in the back, puncturing the victim’s lung with a 5-centimeter-deep laceration.”

So one homeless person robbed another, sleeping homeless person and then went to sleep himself. Then, when the latter awoke, he found and stabbed the sleeping man who’d robbed him.

“The victim managed to escape to the adjacent subway car where he pushed the emergency button and collapsed to the ground, bleeding profusely from his back, as bystanders called 911. The victim was transported to Bellevue Hospital where he received treatment for a ruptured lung and internal bleeding.

“Banks fled the subway. He was arrested on Jan. 5, 2025 by warrants detectives at the 216th Street train station in the Bronx.”

So far, so depressing. Then the New York Post entered the story, detailing Banks’s dozens of arrests, many of them in the Bronx, over decades of volatile behavior, including prior alleged stabbings and a shooting.

While Bragg critics accuse him of being “soft on crime,” and every alleged mistake by police is put under a public microscope, what about the lawyers, judges, social workers, and nonprofit advocates in Jamar Banks’s past?