The man who was attacked by a samurai sword-wielding assailant on the New York City subway Thursday morning is the same man who triggered a bomb scare on the transit system three years ago.
Larry Griffin, a panhandler who caused a frenzy in 2019 when he planted rice cookers inside lower Manhattan subway stations, has been identified to the New York Daily News as the same man who was bloodied by a man he said was dressed as a ninja.
Griffin was hit in the head with a samurai sheath with a pearl handle, leaving him with wounds that are not considered to be life-threatening, according to police. 
His attacker, who is wearing a Article Ninja suit with a rainbow-colored pattern on the sleeves, a black baseball hat with a Marvel logo on the front, is still on the loose.  
Griffin was charged with two counts of placing a false bomb or hazardous substance in 2020 after surveillance footage captured him pushing a shopping cart filled with rice cookers inside Fulton Street Station and planting two of the devices on separate parts of the platform.
The discovery of the two containers inside the station, located just two blocks from the World Trade Center, on the morning of August 16, 2019, prompted an evacuation of Fulton Street and counter-terrorism officers were summoned to the scene.
An hour later, cops confirmed the cookers were empty, were not modified, and were not explosives as first feared, but a city-wide search for the culprit who planted them was launched. 
Family members told DailyMail.com at the time of Griffin's arrest that he had a history of drug abuse and drug addiction and had been panhandling in New York up until the rice cooker incident.
Larry Griffin is seen at his arraignment in State Supreme Court on September 19, 2019 in New York.

He was charged with placing what authorities believed were bombs in the subway
New York City Police canvass the Chambers Street station in Lower Manhattan for a samurai sword-wielding assailant who attacked a man on the subway Thursday morning
Surveillance video obtained by police shows Larry Griffin pushing a shopping cart with rice cookers inside and leaving them in Fulton Street Station and on one of its platforms
Larry Kenton Griffin was charged with two counts of placing a false bomb or hazardous substance in a public place back in August after surveillance footage captured him pushing a shopping cart filled with rice cookers inside Fulton Street Station
The discovery of the two containers inside the station, located just two blocks from the World Trade Center, on August 16, 2019, prompted an evacuation of Fulton Street and counterterrorism officers were summoned to the scene 
Family members told DailyMail.com at the time of Griffin's arrest that he had a history of drug abuse and drug addiction and had been panhandling in New York up until the rice cooker incident
The latest violent incident in New York City's transit system happened around 9:30 a.m.

Thursday on a northbound A train at the Chambers Street station in Lower Manhattan, police said. 
The attacker struck Griffin in the head with the sheath of his sword and fled in an unknown direction. No arrests have been made and an investigation into what spurred the assault is ongoing.
Griffin suffered a cut to his forehead and was spotted being bandaged up by paramedics before he was transported to a local hospital.

Police said his injuries are not life-threatening.
Police are urging the public to be on the lookout for the assailant who was seen fleeing the subway station in the city's posh Tribeca neighborhood. 
The assault came amid a spike in crimes in the city's transit system, including attacks that claimed the lives of eight people just this year, a startling reality that has left many commuters on edge.
Additional officers were called to assist after the suspect was seen fleeing the subway station
Dozens more have been injured in unprovoked attacks that include stabbings, beatings and at least 12 people have been shoved onto the tracks.
Despite rising numbers in subway crime, NYC Mayor Eric Adams earlier this week claimed that there was only a 'perception' that crime was 'out of control' despite a 31 percent surge year-on-year. 
Last year, there were six murders on the subway.
RELATED ARTICLES



Share this article
Share


Dozens more have been injured in unprovoked attacks that include stabbings, beatings and at least 12 people have been shoved onto the tracks.
Earlier this week, Queens man Heriberto Quintana, 48, died after falling onto the tracks and being struck by a train in Jackson Heights. 
The fall was the result of an argument and shoving match that ensued when he bumped into Carlos Garcia, 50, on the platform, causing him to drop his cellphone.
Garcia then demanded Quintana go get his phone and when he refused, the two began arguing in Spanish and a shoving fight ensued causing Quintana to be pushed onto the tracks and into an oncoming train. 
Garcia was arrested on Tuesday and charged with manslaughter. 
Heriberto Quintana died Monday after bumping into a fellow passenger on the platform and knocking his phone onto the train tracks in Jackson Heights, Queens
Carlos Garcia, 50, was charged in the death of 48-year-old Heriberto Quintana on Monday after a tussle that led to Quintana falling onto the F train subway tracks and being hit by a train
The scuffle at the 74th street and Broadway at the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue station
At the end of September, father-of-three Tommy Bailey was slashed in the neck by a homeless man on the L train to Atlantic Ave Station in Brooklyn.
At the time, he was trying to intervene when Alvin Charles started harassing a female NYPD officer.
During an argument between the pair, Charles pulled out a knife and stabbed the 43-year-old steamfitter in the neck.
Police arrested Charles, who had previously faced assault charges for stabbing another man last year.

He has been walking free ever since being allowed out when a judge denied that he be held on $50,000.
Tommy Bailey, 43, was onboard the L train to Atlantic Ave Station in Brooklyn when he got into an argument with homeless passenger Alvin Charles, who was harassing a cop on September 30.

The homeless man pulled out a knife and slashed Bailey in the throat 
Homeless man Alvin Charles (center) was arrested and charged with Bailey's murder
Bailey's death is just one of a string of senseless murders on the subway - three of which have occurred in the first three weeks of October.
Last week, 15-year-old Jayjon Burnett was shot dead by a known gangbanger just on a Far Rockaway A train just days before his 16th birthday.
Keyondre Russell, 18, was charged for Burnett's murder in second degree and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.
Assistant District Attorney Christine Occhiogrosso called the murder a 'gang related incident.'
Charles Moore, 38, and a father, was stabbed in the back and chest after leaving a northbound four train in the Bronx at 10.30pm on October 6.

Saquan Lemons, 27, was arrested for allegedly stabbing Moore. The attack was random and unprovoked, according to police.
Jayjon Burnett (left) was allegedly shot by Keyondre Russell, 18, (right) days before his 16th birthday on October 14.

The shooting occurred after a dispute with two groups on a Far Rockaway A train in NYC
Marcus Bethea, 24, was shot and killed at the Jamaica Center subway station in April while working as a subway card swiper
Daniel Enriquez, 48, was riding on the Q train that was heading over the Manhattan Bridge, when a gunman opened fire without warning on May 22 
Michelle Alyssa Go, 49, was killed on January 15 when she was shoved onto the subway tracks on the southbound by Simon Martial 
Marcus Bethea, 24, was shot and killed at the Jamaica Center subway station in April while working as a subway card swiper.
Daniel Enriquez, 48, was riding on the Q train that was heading over the Manhattan Bridge, when a gunman opened fire without warning on May 22.
The Goldman Sachs employee never took the subway, his partner Adam Pollack told DailyMail.com at the time.

But an Uber to and from Williamsburg would have cost him $80. Andrew Abdullah, 25, was arrested in that attack.
Another subway bawl located at the 137 street - City College train station - on June 9 left a 14-year-old dead from a stab wound to his stomach.
Police recovered a knife and broomstick thought to have been involved in the crime.
Michelle Alyssa Go, 49, was killed on January 15 when she was shoved onto the subway tracks on the southbound N/Q/R/W platform at West 42nd Street and Broadway at around 9.40am in a senseless, unprovoked attack.
Simon Martial, 61, was arrested and charged with Go's death a day later.

He was sent to a psychiatric facility after prosecutors declined to challenge a mental evaluation that found him unfit to stand trial.
On New Year's Day, Roland Huston was killed after jumping onto the tracks to rescue a man who'd been attacked by a group of knife-wielding thugs.

Two boys, 16 and 17, were arrested for murder and gang assault weeks later.
On New Year's Day, Roland Huston was killed after jumping onto the tracks to rescue a man who'd been attacked by a group of teenagers
Miguel Ramirez (left), 35, was arrested for an unprovoked subway attack in the Bronx
German Sabio, 26, was shoved by Ramirez into the path of a northbound 6 train at the East 149th Street Station on Saturday
Miguel Ramirez was frogmarched out a police station and into a police car Monday, days after stalking and shoving German Sabio, 26, into the path of a northbound 6 train at the East 149th Street Station on Saturday morning.
The terrifying clip of the attack shows the suspect - who cops say is Ramirez - appear wild-eyed and unhinged moments before the shove took place.
Charges are pending against Ramirez while Sabio, who was rescued by good Samaritans, suffered leg injuries.
'Wow, all I can say to be honest is to give thanks to God, so that way this guy cannot do it again to somebody else,' Sabio told NBC.
'I have to take the train when I go to work and I still remember it in my memory, that feeling, that sensation. So, knowing this guy got arrested, I feel a little more easy.'
The terrifying clip of the attack shows the suspect - who cops say is Ramirez - appear wild-eyed and unhinged moments before the shove took place.
Despite the mounting number of crime victims, Mayor Adams insisted the crime rate was fine, adding that there are an average of six crimes per day on the subways.
The mayor admitted there are 'too many guns' on the streets of New York but said police have done a great job at confiscating thousands of firearms. 
 'We have to be honest about that and those average of six crimes a day is not giving the impression that it is out of control,' Adams said. 
District Attorney Alvin Bragg previously pledged to crackdown on subway crime with the introduction of a designated, train task force.

However, the impacts of those are unclear. 
Recent data shows subway murders have risen to their highest in 25 years, despite plummeting ridership. Between 1997 and 2020, there were never more than five murders a year on New York City subway trains. 

New York Mayor Eric Adams has claimed that there is only a 'perception' that crime in the Big Apple is 'out of control' despite eight people being murdered on the subway system this year
That number rose to six in 2020, eight in 2021 and it's already at eight with two-and-half months left of the year.
Felony crime on the subway is up by 42 percent, but ridership has almost halved.
Murders in the city are down by 14.8 percent with 341 reported in 2022 to date in comparison to 400 last year. 
Overall crime in the city is up 31.1 percent with felony assaults and robbery rates remaining high. 
Upon his election, Adams vowed to crackdown on subway crime with the introduction of a designated train task force. 
The group has not yet made a dent in the worsening crime issue.
In January, Adams also introduced his 'subway safety plan,' which put more than 1,000 extra cops per day in the city's subways.
After 10-and-a-half months of the initiative, crime in the city's underground transportation tunnels remains upwards of 40% higher than the same period in 2021.