A Brooklyn man stabbed on a subway platform during a spat with two men said he had the upper hand until the toughs pulled out a blade.
Emil Benjamin, 30, was on a southbound F train approaching a station at Fourth Ave. and Ninth St. in Park Slope when the two men started cursing him out with antisemitic slurs about 9:40 p.m. Monday, he said.
“They said, ‘You’re nobody, you Jewish bastard,’ ” Benjamin said.
The men pounced, and Benjamin, a Kavkazi Jew, took punches all over his body. “The doors opened and it spilled onto the platform,” he said. “They were on me from both sides.”
Benjamin, a loan broker from Bensonhurst, punched one of the brutes in the mouth, busting his lip open. But as the duo ran away, Benjamin felt something pouring down his back.
“I felt blood gushing out of my back and my left leg,” he said. “It was sizzling hot, like a hot shower. My blue jeans were red. My sneakers were soaked with blood.”
As bystanders called for help, Benjamin, who was stabbed in the back and left thigh, spotted a blood-soaked knife on the concrete platform. He was rushed to Lutheran Medical Center, and cops busted the suspects nearby.
Rafael Padin, 22, and Jose Santos, 18, were charged with assault. Padin, who sliced his own hand during the stabbing, was also slapped with criminal possession of a weapon.
Police said they are not investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Both were taken to Long Island College Hospital, where Santos was treated for his busted lip and Padin for his cut hand.
“If it was just fists, I might have been able to fight them off,” Benjamin said. “But I couldn’t handle all the blood.”
He also said that his assailants were cowards to pull out a knife. “They are punks,” he said. “A real tough guy only needs his fists.”
Still, Benjamin said, no one should ever resort to violence. “The best thing to do is walk away with a smile,” he said. “Smile to life, and life will smile to you.”
