Crown Heights man gets 7 years for subway slashing attack on C train

August 6, 2024 Robert Abruzzese, Courthouse Editor

The C Train: The scene of the brutal attack where Sean Lewis slashed a good Samaritan's face, leading to a seven-year prison sentence. Photo: GeneralPunger/Wikimedia Commons

Share this:

A Crown Heights man was sentenced to seven years in prison for a brutal attack on a good Samaritan who tried to break up a fight on a Brooklyn subway car.

Sean Lewis, 34, slashed a 44-year-old man in the face on a southbound C train on May 10, 2023. The victim, who attempted to intervene in a fight between Lewis and another man, was left with significant facial scarring.

“Today’s sentence holds the defendant accountable for a vicious and unprovoked attack of a stranger riding the subway,” District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. “The fact that the victim was simply acting as a good Samaritan makes the defendant’s behavior in this case especially appalling. We will never tolerate violence in the subway system.”

The assault occurred around 9:40 p.m. on May 10, 2023. The victim, after trying to stop the fight, retreated to the other end of the subway car. As the train arrived at the Franklin Avenue station, Lewis approached the victim, thanked him, and then slashed his face with a sharp object before fleeing the scene.

The victim was transported to Kings County Hospital, where he required approximately 100 stitches for an eight-inch wound on the left side of his face.

Lewis pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted assault on June 11, 2024, and was sentenced by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jane Tully to seven years in prison, followed by five years of post-release supervision. He was arrested on May 18, 2023, after being identified through surveillance footage.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Steven Bravo of the Blue Zone Trial Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Kin Ng, Bureau Chief.