Thursday, February 28, 1980

Witness Is Struck by Arrow On Brooklyn Subway Steps

An assailant using a bow and a three-pronged arrow with razor blades at the end of each prong seriously wounded a man in the back yesterday as he started down the steps of the Botanic Garden subway station in Brooklyn. The 27-inch arrow was aluminum and the razor blades were attached with wires.

The 36-year-old victim, Alexander Hudson, was reported in satisfactory condition. He had been a prosecution witness in a trial charging a former police officer with attempted murder, which ended with a hung jury in November 1978. He was a possible witness for either prosecution or defense in a coming new trial.

Mr. Hudson told transit police that a man wearing a green hooded jacket emerged from a white van just before he was struck by the arrow at 6:55am.

Bleeding, Mr. Hudson staggered down to the Franklin Ave shuttle’s token booth and fell against it. The arrow snapped, leaving its forward end six inches in his right shoulder blade. Surgeons removed the shaft in a four hour operation saying that it had reached a lung.

He had testified in a case in which Mark McCurdy, the a city police officer, was charged with shooting Alexander Bradford, a sanitation man and his former record-store partner, on March 13, 1977. Mr. M. claimed self-defense.

NYT 2/28/80