A dozing subway passenger who had three large kitchen knives resting on his lap Friday was pulled from his rush hour train, cops and witnesses said.
“He had three big knives sitting in his lap but he was just asleep,” said delayed straphanger Patrick Synmoie, 60.
“I was sitting right there and I didn’t even notice it at all. That’s New York for you.”
Passengers started leaving the Manhattan-bound R train at the Court St. station around 9:45 a.m. after a person noticed the armed Ivan Nieves, 53, and alerted an MTA worker.
“It was the one day I was going to be early,” joked Synmoie, a lawyer.
Nieves woke up as passengers fled and sat motionless with his legs crossed until police arrived and arrested him, witnesses said.
He was told twice to drop the knives by police before he complied, cops said.
“Everyone just wants to go to work,” said commuter Lisa Smith, 35.
Nieves, who police said had more than 25 prior arrests and spent two years in state prison for an attempted robbery in 2010, will be charged with criminal possession of a weapon and menacing.
Earlier this year NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton announced that cops would begin waking up sleeping subway commuters in an effort to curb crime on the trains.
There have been 1,878 citywide stabbings and slashings so far this year, 38 of which happened on subways, recent police data showed.
The number of citywide knife attacks has risen 10% from 2015, while the number of subway slashings has remained the same, according to police records.
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