A man randomly stabbed a tourist visiting New York City to make a marriage proposal in the back of the head with a knife, sources said.
Connor Rasmussen, 23, was stabbed in the back of his head with a steak knife in midtown Manhattan at 1:45 a.m. Sunday while walking with three friends in search of a pizzeria, the New York Daily News reported.
He removed the knife from the base of his neck and escaped without serious injury. It required eight stitches to close the two-inch gash.
“Initially I didn’t know that I had gotten stabbed,” Rasmussen said. “I was so confused, I felt the handle of the knife and I pulled it out. I then checked for blood and immediately put pressure on it.”
Rasmussen said his attacker was wearing dark-colored winter clothes and said nothing during the attack.
Rasmussen was taken to Bellevue Hospital and was eventually released after a CAT scan showed no serious injury to his head.
“He got stitches,”Rasmussen’s grandmother Linda Colon, 71, said. “It was a two-inch gash. If it would have been two inches or an inch on either side, from what the doctors said, it would have killed him.”
The victim’s female friend also got scratched in the face by the attacker.
Rasmussen skipped a job interview and flew to New York City from his home in Washington state to propose to his girlfriend Jordan Asher, 22, in Central Park just two days before the attack.
He proposed to Asher while 11 family members and friends, who flew in to witness the event, stood by Friday.
“It was really scary to get that phone call and have to comprehend everything,” Asher said. “Before that, it was the best weekend of my life. I think God was watching over us and Connor, and we’re happy to be able to move on exactly how we came.”
Police said that the attack was unrelated to a stabbing incident reported half an hour later on 42nd street, the Daily Mail reported.
The victims of that incident were two 25-year-olds. One was stabbed in the chest while the other suffered neck and shoulder injuries.
Both were taken to Bellevue Hospital, and police are searching for a man in his 20s who fled the area.
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