Surveillance footage captured a dramatic scene as a man armed with a machete weapon severed another man’s fingers during a horrifying dog-walking encounter in New York City.
Tayquon Young, 34, a Bronx native, lost four fingers in last Friday’s harrowing incident, according to the New York Post.
Stranger threatens dog’s life with machete weapon
It all began in broad daylight, around 11:30 a.m., as Young was walking his pit bull, Chanel.
The dog reportedly tried playing with another man’s dog, which seemed to spark the situation.
“They was playing around, his dog didn’t have a leash, my dog was next to me, she wasn’t biting his dog or anything. My dog was trying to play around,” Young recounted to the Post.
However, things quickly took a turn for the worse as the man allegedly threatened to decapitate Chanel before turning on Young.
Security footage showed the two dogs interacting on the sidewalk, while their owners stood off to the side.
Suddenly, the man—wearing a green vest—pulled a machete from his clothing.
Shortly after, he lunged at Young, who then moved out of the camera’s view.
Witnesses scrambled, and Chanel darted in the direction of her owner as chaos erupted.
Man loses finger to machete weapon attack
Young was rushed to the hospital for emergency care. Surgeons spent 13 hours attempting to reattach three of his four missing fingers, but his fourth finger remains unaccounted for.
“They basically put my pointer finger as my middle finger and my middle finger as my ring finger,” he explained. “So I’m just missing my index finger. They couldn’t find the ring finger.”
Recalling his horrifying encounter, Young said, “He pulls out the machete to cut my dog’s head off. I put my hand out to grab the sword, and he just cut my hand off.”
“I was in disbelief,” he added. “I knew that the fingers were missing, I knew that, but I didn’t want to look down.”
Despite his traumatic injuries, Young says he has no regrets about stepping in to protect his pooch.
“I was just trying to protect [Chanel]. And you know, I would do it again,” he told New York Daily News.
What the footage didn’t show was Chanel fighting back to defend her owner.
“He went to hit me a second time, after he cut my hand,” Young explained. “He swung for my face. He went to reach for the knife again, and that’s when [Chanel] attacked him.”
The attacker ran off, with Young—bleeding and injured—chasing after him.
“I’m running down the street and missing the fingers,” Young recalled. “When he first initially swung the [machete], I did look and see that my fingers was gone. After that, I could not look no more.”
He believes that the adrenaline of the attack muted the pain. “I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t even painful because it was just, maybe, because my adrenaline and everything.”
Victim’s family wants justice
Young’s mother, Kimtreese Young, pleaded for authorities to act quickly.
“There is a maniac running around with a machete cutting up people’s hands. I hope the city finds this man and gets him the help that he needs,” she said to the Post.
Adding to Young’s frustration, he said no one stepped in to help during the attack.
“They was just watching, recording it on their phones to post on their websites. People wasn’t helping me. I had to tell them to call 911. The owner of the store son was recording me. That’s crazy,” Young shared.
Police are still hunting for the attacker, but Young and his family question why there hasn’t been more urgency in the investigation.
“When that [UnitedHealthcare] CEO got killed they did everything to track him down, building by building by building,” Young said.
“You’re gonna tell me all these buildings on E. Tremont Ave. in the Bronx that got cameras, you can’t track him down?” he questioned.
“Because my fingers is missing and to me, that’s a problem,” Young concluded. “This is going to affect me for the rest of my life.”
