Detective Jose Mercedes stood up from his wheelchair and walked out of Jacobi Medical Center on Monday under his own power, days after two attackers on an e-bike stabbed and slashed him seven times during a robbery in the Bronx.
Hundreds of NYPD members lined up to cheer their brother as he left the Morris Park hospital. The two suspects who ambushed the off-duty detective remain at large.
Fox News reported that the attack unfolded Friday afternoon in the Norwood neighborhood while Mercedes cleared the trunk of his car. The suspects tried to snatch his gold chain. He fought back. They stabbed and slashed him repeatedly, then fled. Despite the serious wounds, he chased them on foot for about two blocks before collapsing near East 206th Street and Rochambeau Avenue.
That grit is the core of this story. An off-duty detective took multiple knife wounds in a street robbery and still ran after the men who cut him.
The robbery attempt hit in daylight. Two suspects on an e-bike closed in on Mercedes as he worked at his car. Officials described a struggle over the gold chain. The detective was stabbed and slashed seven times. The attackers ran. Mercedes pursued them anyway.
He made it roughly two blocks before going down. Neighbors saw him fall in the street and tried to help. One resident later described the scene to the New York Post.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch underscored the chase itself.
“Despite his serious injuries, Detective Mercedes chased after his attackers on foot,”
The wounds included injuries to the neck and leg. Mercedes was listed in stable condition at Jacobi Medical Center after the attack. The timing of the ambush was around 1:40 p.m. Neighbors who knew him from the area recognized him as a cop and watched the rapid police response.
One neighbor who asked not to be identified said the cops arrived fast.
“The cops came in two minutes, it was crazy. We knew him from the neighborhood so we knew he is a cop.”
Another resident described seeing Mercedes go down and trying to assist.
“When I look over there, I see him in the middle of the street, and he fell to the ground. I heard screams from the neighbors…. I tried to help him. I tried to give him my shirt.”
Street robberies with knives keep hitting New York hard, from the Bronx to midtown. Readers following those alerts will recall the knife attack in gun-free Times Square that left one dead before officers stopped the attacker within a minute.
Shortly after the stabbing, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch went to Jacobi Hospital to see the detective and his family. Mamdani spoke about the visit and recovery hopes.
“I visited the detective and his family at Jacobi Hospital with Police Commissioner Tisch,”
He added a second line the same day.
“I am hoping for his quick and complete recovery.”
By Monday the picture had changed. Mercedes was wheeled out of Jacobi Medical Center, then rose and walked on his own two feet. Tisch described the moment and the department’s response on X.
“Today, in another incredible feat of strength and determination, Detective Mercedes got up from his wheelchair and walked out of Jacobi Medical Center on his own two feet. Hundreds of members of the NYPD were there to cheer their brother on,”
She followed with a clear departmental pledge.
“The entire department stands behind Detective Mercedes as he continues his recovery. And the greatest detectives in the world will relentlessly pursue those responsible for this crime,”
That public backing matters. Cops watch whether their own get left behind after they bleed on the job. The same urgency shows up in other recent police-alert cases, including the Upper West Side stabbing that put a suspect in custody after two men were attacked.
Police said Monday the two attackers remain at large. No arrests were announced. No charges were listed in the available accounts. The suspects used an e-bike, struck in a residential Bronx neighborhood, and vanished after the struggle.
Mercedes continues his recovery. The department has framed the case as unfinished business for its detectives. The basic sequence is straightforward: daylight robbery attempt, seven stab and slash wounds, a wounded foot chase, collapse, hospital treatment, then a walk-out cheered by hundreds of fellow officers.
Ordinary New Yorkers see the pattern. An off-duty detective clearing his car trunk becomes a target for a gold-chain snatch. The attackers choose an e-bike for speed. They leave a wounded cop in the street and are still free days later. Taxpayers and lawful residents live with that reality every time predators treat public space as open season.
Heroism under fire is not abstract. The same quality appears in stories far from the Bronx, including the Georgia teacher and father who died saving a stranger’s child from a Myrtle Beach rip current. People who run toward danger, not away from it, set the standard.
Friday afternoon: Mercedes is off duty in Norwood, working at his car. Two suspects on an e-bike move on the gold chain. Struggle. Seven stab and slash wounds. Attackers flee. Detective chases about two blocks and collapses near East 206th Street and Rochambeau Avenue.
Friday, shortly after: Mayor Mamdani and Commissioner Tisch visit the detective and his family at Jacobi. Recovery statements follow.
Monday: Mercedes is wheeled out, then stands and walks from Jacobi Medical Center in Morris Park. Hundreds of NYPD members cheer. Police confirm the two attackers are still free.
The locations are specific. Norwood for the ambush. The collapse point near East 206th and Rochambeau. Jacobi in Morris Park for treatment and release. The mechanism is equally clear: e-bike approach, chain snatch attempt, close-quarters stabbing and slashing, foot pursuit despite wounds.
Police work does not end at the hospital doors. Cases like the long-running search that ended when a New York grandmother was found dead near Las Vegas airport after vanishing on a routine errand show how unfinished investigations weigh on families and departments alike. Here the unfinished piece is simpler and more immediate: two men who stabbed a detective in the Bronx are still on the street.
Tisch’s language left little room for drift. The department stands behind Mercedes. Its detectives will pursue the attackers. The walk-out gave the public a visible measure of the man’s toughness. The open manhunt gives the public a visible measure of whether the city closes the case.
Brazen daytime robberies that put knives into an off-duty cop’s neck and leg are not background noise. They are a test of whether New York still backs the people who chase the predators. Mercedes did his part while bleeding. The remaining work belongs to the investigators and to a city that decides whether e-bike slash-and-grab crews get to melt away after they cut a detective.
Cops who chase after being stabbed deserve a city that chases just as hard until the attackers are in cuffs.
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