Say What? Boy Grabs Knife After Dad Pulls Plug on Video Game

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Bite night on the 7 train

Chomper attacks 2 riders

By JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER


Jose Velez, 18, needed seven stitches to close this facial wound caused by a deranged subway rider who bit him and Velez's grandfather on the 7 train in Queens.

A crazed straphanger bit off the thumb of a 71-year-old Queens man and chewed his grandson's face during a wild attack in a packed rush-hour subway car, police said yesterday.
The nightmare on the Flushing-bound 7 train began at 5 p.m. Monday when a disheveled and drunken man jumped 18-year-old Jose Velez, ripped off his own shirt and screamed, "I'm bad. You're nothing. I'm a bada--."

With the train just beyond the 61st St.-Woodside station, Velez's grandfather, Reynaldo Hidalgo, tried to come to the teen's aid, but the madman turned on him, too, cops said.

"He was crazy. He bit me in the chest and the face, and he went after my grandfather," Velez said.

"He took his thumb right off, and my grandfather just started screaming," the teen added. Ivan Rodriguez, 26, spat out the top of Hidalgo's left thumb, Velez said. The grandfather, a diabetic, was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where doctors tried unsuccessfully to reattach the digit.

Rodriguez was arrested after police, who were alerted by train workers, rushed in at the 69th St. station to help Velez, who had wrestled his attacker to the ground despite the blood gushing from the bite on his left cheek.

Hidalgo and Velez were heading to their 169th St. home in Jamaica after filing some immigration forms for a relative in their native Ecuador when they were attacked for no reason, the younger man said.

"He tried to start trouble as soon as he got on the train, but he was drunk and I didn't want no trouble," said Velez, who works at a Manhattan clothing store. "He stepped on my foot and bumped me, but I still ignored him."

Rodriguez then punched Velez, he said, sending him toppling to the floor and scattering the other passengers to the far reaches of the subway car.

"My grandfather tried to help me, and [Rodriguez] went after him and bit him," Velez said. Velez said he tackled Rodriguez, who fought back by chomping down wildly on his chest and cheek.

"It was rush hour and no one came to help, no passengers, no train employees," Velez said. "I was on my own."

Velez received seven stitches at Bellevue to close the gash on his face.

Rodriguez, who spent three days in jail last spring after being arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest, gave cops a false Corona address. Investigators are unsure whether he is homeless, a law enforcement source said.

"He's a messed-up guy. He's not all there," another source said.

Rodriguez was arraigned yesterday on two counts of first-degree assault in Queens Criminal Court, said a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. His bail was set at $5,000.

"How can I feel safe on the subway anymore?" Velez asked. "Can it be a part of life now?"