Five men were hospitalized after being slashed at a Harlem men’s homeless shelter.
Officers responded to multiple 911 calls from the VIP Harlem men’s shelter at 170 East 123rd Street around 5:30 p.m. Friday, police said.
The suspect allegedly came through the facility’s metal detector with a large razor and started swiping at people nearby, witnesses told The Post.
Five men between the ages of 27 and 48 suffered minor slash wounds, police said.
“I was minding my own business eating my dinner and I got cut from behind. He cut me at the back of my head with a razor,” one of the victims, who did not give his name, told The Post.
“I don’t know him from a hole in the wall,” he said of the alleged perpetrator, who was arrested at the scene.
The suspect, Malik Allen, 26, was charged with five counts of assault with intent to cause physical injury, police said.
It was not immediately clear if he had been released.
“He came after me last week. I told him to go lay down. I’m not the one. He laid down and went to sleep. He also went after another guy last week,” claimed one shelter resident who gave his name as Michael.
“Sometimes the guards are sleeping or on their phones. That’s a distraction,” he added about the protection on-site.
“None of the security guards tried to stop him. They said, ‘That’s not my job.’”
When one of the security guards on-duty Saturday was asked about the incident, they said that the facility’s procedure was for the guards to call the people in charge of the facility instead of informing the police.
“We have to alert the VIP in there and they call the police. They are in charge,” the guard said.
A spokesperson for VIP Community Services confirmed the alleged attacker was a resident at the shelter who was recently referred there by the city’s Department of Homeless Services. They declined further comment on the allegation that security guards were directed to call VIP, instead of police, in an emergency.
