Bronx Man's Fingers Sliced Off After Protecting His Pit Bull from Man Wielding Machete

Mar. 15, 2025

Rakeem Young.Photo:abc7 NY

abc7 NY

Rakeem Young, 34, was attacked while walking his 4-year-old pit bull Chanel near Southern Blvd. and E. 178th St. in East Tremont on Friday, Jan. 24, around 11:20 a.m. Young told theDaily Newsthe attacker also had a dog, but his was unleashed.

When Chanel went to greet the other dog, the other person allegedly told Young, “ ‘Yo, get your dog. I’m [going to] chop her head off,’ ” Young told theDaily News. “And then the dude just swung the knife at me for no apparent reason. I remember lifting my hand saying, ‘No! No!’ ”

As Young moved his hand to protect Chanel, the attacker allegedly took a 2-foot blade and chopped off the fingers of Young’s left hand, per CBS.

“He just swings the machete and that’s when I throw my hand up to grab it and it sliced off my fingers," Young told ABC 7.

The suspect hit him twice after he cut him, and then Chanel attacked the suspect, Young told theDaily News. Young then ran down the street and looked down at his hand to saw his fingers were missing.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he added. “It wasn’t even painful because it was just, maybe because, my adrenaline and everything.”

Young told ABC 7 that if he hadn’t saved Chanel, it would have “tormented [him] for the rest of [his] life."

“Every time I close my eyes, I replay it over and over again, and I have a hard time sleeping,” he told theDaily News. “If he would have sliced my dog’s head off like that, that would have broke my heart. That would have broke me for the rest of my life.”

The suspect ran away after the attack, police said. The attacker is around 40 to 50 years old, stands 5 feet, 10 inches and weighs 180 pounds, with a dark complexion. The suspect was last seen wearing a tan-colored hat, pants and boots, a gray hoodie and a green vest, police said, per CBS.

“They basically put my pointer finger as my middle finger and my middle finger as my ring finger,” Young told theDaily News. “So I’m just missing my index finger. They couldn’t find the ring finger.”

His mother, Kimtreese Young, told theDaily Newsthat as of Sunday, Jan. 26, people were “still out there looking for the finger that was missing.”

Young will need additional medical procedures, including surgery to improve blood flow to his reattached fingers, and his mother made aGoFundMepage to raise money for medical expenses.

“He’s a lefty. He does everything with that hand,” Rakeem’s aunt, Tashemia Young, told CBS. “He’s angry. He’s hurt. He feels unsafe.”

“This man is still on the loose. We don’t know if this man wants to circle back around and be like you keep talking about me, I can finish it,” Tashemia continued. “And he’s walking around here with a machete inside his pants. How are you not able to find this person?”

Anyone with any information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

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A representative for the NYPD did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for additional information on Tuesday.

source: people.com