A woman who was stabbed by a maniac at Grand Central Terminal on Christmas Eve said he came up from behind and punched her — and that no one around her came to her aid after he plunged the knife into her throat.
Imani-Ciara Pizarro, 26, had just gotten off the 4 train around 10 p.m. and was heading to her administrative night job at the Roosevelt Hotel, which has been converted into a migrant shelter, when she was attacked.
She was Facetiming with her neighbor when she spotted blood spattered on the floor near the turnstiles. Seconds later, Pizarro “blacked out” when the assailant “sucker punched” her in the back of the head “as hard as he could,” forcing her to the ground.
The suspect, identified by police as 28-year-old Brooklyn native Jason Sargeant, began repeatedly yelling at her “what’s your problem?” — and then lunged at her with a small knife, cutting through her throat. He then kicked Pizarro’s phone away.
Witnesses to the stabbing, many of whom appeared to be tourists “just froze.” Police were nowhere in sight, she said.
“I wish I could be able to travel to my livelihood and not be attacked. I wish there were cops in Grand Central when I was attacked, there were none. I was running for help and there was no one there,” she said.
“There are usually cops in four different spots and I ran to each one of them but none were there,” she said.
“No one called 911. No one in Grand Central called 911. It was my neighbor. I called my neighbor. I was on the phone with my neighbor when it happened and she called 911.”
A second stabbing victim, a 42-year-old man who was slashed in the wrist, “got injured worse than me,” she said.
“It was almost like he wanted to get caught cuz he ran further into Grand Central” towards the central ticket booth yelling “I hate all of you,” Pizarro said.
She hid until her attacker fled the station, and, with no one around to help her as she bled from her neck, Pizarro ran to the Roosevelt Hotel where medical staff patched her wound.
Sources told The Post that after Pizzaro was stabbed, witnesses pointed out Sargeant to MTA police within the station. He was arrested and the weapon was recovered.
He’s charged with assault, reckless endangerment, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon, harassment and disorderly conduct, police said.
Sargeant has three prior arrests for criminal mischief, fare beating, and assaulting a police officer, sources said.
“It’s not fair. We’re getting hurt everyday. And there’s nothing I can do. I can’t protect myself. I’ve almost been assaulted two other times in the last two months by mentally ill people. I try to ignore them but they don’t like being ignored either,” Pizarro said.
She said she’s going to try and find a safer way to get to her job — but a car is significantly more expensive than the train.
“I want to be able to go to work and not be harassed and attacked. To be safe. It’s not possible now,” she said.
The double-stabbing comes less than a week after a woman was set on fire on a late-night F-train in Coney Island — marking the ninth killing on the metro system this year, matching a 25-year high.
Critics blasted bystanders and an NYPD officer who were filmed watching idly as the woman, engulfed in flames, writhed in pain before collapsing.
Tuesday’s incident is also the second Christmas in a row that people have been attacked at the iconic Midtown train station.
Last Christmas Day, two teenage girls visiting from South America, were stabbed at Tartinery in the Grand Central Dining Concourse by a man ranting that he wanted “all the white people dead.”
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