Police on Wednesday arrested a man they were seeking as a suspect in a stabbing that injured a 51-year-old man at a Manhattan subway station last week, according to the NYPD.
Department officials said they took 28-year-old Dariel Castillo into custody around 8:30 a.m., charging him with assault for the Jan. 28 attack inside the Broadway-Lafayette station in SoHo.
Castillo and the victim were strangers who got into an argument in the mezzanine, officials said. Castillo then approached and stabbed the other man in his back several times, according to police. First responders took him to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
Castillo lives in NYCHA’s Jefferson Houses in East Harlem, according to the NYPD. Information for his attorney was not immediately available early Thursday.
Police also said they were looking for a teenager who on Tuesday allegedly stabbed and wounded a 15-year-old boy on a J train in the same precinct as the SoHo incident.
Officials said it happened around 7:20 p.m. as the train approached the Canal Street station in Chinatown. They said the teens did not know each other and got into a fight that turned violent.
The victim was stabbed in his buttocks and taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition, while the assailant fled the scene, according to authorities.
Transit crime citywide is up about 10% so far this year compared to the same point last year, NYPD data shows. Grand larcenies make up the majority of the reports in 2026, with 84 recorded through Feb. 1. Felony assaults are the next largest category, with 52 reported through that date.
In the Fifth Precinct, which serves the part of Lower Manhattan where both of the subway attacks occurred, transit crime has tripled so far this year. Nine incidents have been reported, up from three at the same time in 2025, the data shows.
This is a developing story based on preliminary information from police and may be updated.
