Some wacko slashed a modern-day knight in the face aboard an L train in Williamsburg on Nov. 8, after the chivalrous straphanger prevented him from assaulting another man.
The victim — who dons plate armor to engage in armed duels as part of the Society for Creative Anachronisms and New York City Armored Combat League — sustained a seven-inch gash amid the attack, and said Medieval warfare has nothing on the city’s transit system.
“My sport involves swords and axes, but the only thing I’ve gotten from that is a torn ACL and a couple broken bones, and here I finally get a scar,” said Zorikh Lequidre.
Lequidre said that he boarded a Brooklyn-bound L train at Manhattan’s Union Square subway station at around 10 pm, when he noticed the knave repeatedly hurling a smaller man off the train, and yelled at him to knock it off.
The villain then started shouting at the victim, resulting in a back and forth that ended when the other man snarled “suck my dick,” to which Lequidre quipped “only if it comes with horseradish,” eliciting some chuckles from his surrounding straphangers.
The nut then attempted to hock a loogie at the victim, but managed to hit another man instead, according to Lequidre, who said the hapless bystander’s girlfriend had to talk him down from fighting the creep.
It wasn’t until the train pulled into the Lorimer Street stop in Williamsburg that things turned bloody, and the lunatic slashed Lequidre across the left cheek before scurrying out the door.
“He took a swipe at me, and I thought he just scratched my cheek,” he said. “I waited until the guy turned around and left, then I put my hand on my cheek and realized, oh yeah, I am bleeding.”
Detectives with the 94th Precinct are investigating the attack, and have not made any arrests, according to a spokeswoman for the Police Department.
Lequidre — who suspects the knife-wielding lune may be a former homeless shelter resident, or patient at a hospital near Union Square — described his attacker as around 40 years old, six foot three inches tall, and approximately 190 pounds, while sporting a beard and oversized clothes.
The warrior from Williamsburg studied jiu jitsu and wrestling before making his own suit of armor and traveling to Poland for his first Battle of Nations in 2012, an annual armored slugfest where he represented Team USA battling other combatants with weapons including swords, maces, battle axes, halbreds, polearms and warhammers.
But the fighter claims his most powerful weapons have always been his sharp tongue and cool wits, and says he was happy to put them to use for a good cause.
“Part of the point of being a knight is to defend people. and that’s what I was trying to do,” said Lequidre.
