A Russian immigrant stabbed in the stomach by a man he caught urinating against his Greenwich Village apartment building is now scared to make eye contact with strangers.
“I’ve become very nervous when I go around,” Artem Shuvalov told the Daily News. “New York has to do something about this.”
The NYPD has released surveillance images of the suspect, who remains on the loose
Shuvalov, 27, was heading out from his Downing St. apartment near Varick St. to run an errand around 4:10 p.m. Wednesday when he heard a sound like “water pouring” from underneath the temporary scaffolding in front of his building.
He was without his glasses and so was squinting into the shady area beneath the scaffolding when he realized the sound was from a man using his building as a urinal.
“I’m trying to figure out what he’s doing and three seconds after I realized he is actually peeing,” Shuvalov said.
Police told The News the victim was stabbed after verbally confronting the attacker.
But Shuvalov says he never uttered a word before the man began shouting homophobic slurs and then charged at him.
“I was just looking… he starts approaching me and he’s asking, ‘What are you looking at?’ Are you gay? Do you want to suck my d–k?’” Shuvalov recounted.
The attacker rushed at Shuvalov with what appeared to be a fist full of tissue paper and socked him once in right side of his stomach, Shuvalov said.
“I’m saying, ‘F-k off,’ and the same moment he pulls out some napkins from his pocket and he punches me in my stomach.”
It was only after he retreated to his third-floor apartment that Shuvalov’s girlfriend looked up from cooking to discover he was obviously wounded. It was Valentine’s Day and she was making a special meal.
“I just saw that he was completely covered in blood,” said Jaulie Goe.
Despite the heavy bleeding, Shuvalov’s wound was less than an inch wide, leading the pair to believe his attacker was wielding a makeshift weapon.
“It was like some shank, that’s why he was holding napkins,” Shuvalov said. “It wasn’t a knife because the hole is very thin.”
An ambulance rushed Shuvalov to Bellevue Hospital where doctors were concerned his liver was nicked in the assault. Tests later revealed he’d suffered little more than a flesh wound and he was discharged that night. His girlfriend had returned to New York from traveling the day before.
“We had planned this week of fun and the first day when she is officially here I got stabbed in front of my house,” Shuvalov lamented.
Shuvalov came to America to get his master’s degree in financial engineering at the University of California, Berkley. He says he felt safer on the streets of Moscow than he does in New York and plans to keep his eyes to himself from now on.
“I’m definitely stressed, trying not to look at people,” he added.
The NYPD describes the suspect as slim with a medium complexion. He was wearing a blue vest over a black hoodie, gray pants and brown boots.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
