Notice that he didn't feel the knife, and the lack of eye contact. Anything else coming up for anyone?

Houstonian barely survives knifing
A homeless man admitted to the attack on New York subway, police say

By ZEKE MINAYA
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

The trip had been planned for more than a year. Christopher McCarthy and his girlfriend, Ganda Krisananuwatara, had booked hotels, rented cars and contacted friends in preparation for a 12-day jaunt through the Northeast.

"They were so excited," said Ganda's mother, Poolsin Krisananuwatara, from Houston.

Tuesday, however, on only the fourth day of the vacation, Poolsin Krisananuwatra got a call from her daughter in hysterics, she said.

"She sounded very shaken, she was crying and I couldn't get any words from her," she said.

Without a word and without a reason, a homeless man had plunged a 3 1/2 -inch blade into McCarthy's chest as the couple were trying to find their way on a New York City subway.

''I was like, 'What just happened?' " Ganda Krisananuwatara, 20, told the New York Times on Wednesday. ''I looked over at my boyfriend. He said, 'The guy just stabbed me.' "

Police arrested a homeless man Wednesday in the stabbing of four people in Manhattan, including McCarthy, who was critically wounded in the subway.

McCarthy, 21, was in critical condition after barely surviving the deep wound to his chest, doctors said.

Joe McCarthy said his son had forgiven the assailant and hopes the attacker ''can get help."

New York City investigators said the attacker, who was identified as Kenny Alexis, was sitting across from the couple at about 4 p.m. on the last car of a subway heading downtown on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

The police said the man did not make eye contact with the couple, and McCarthy's father said his son had deliberately avoided the man's gaze.

Marcus McCarthy, the victim's uncle, said he was shocked when he received the news Tuesday.

''I was surprised, especially that it happened early in the day like that," he said. He described his nephew as a ''passive, intellectual type of guy."

Charges were pending against Alexis, who had been living in a shelter. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Alexis admitted stabbing McCarthy and two others.

Two of the four victims were Canadian tourists who were stabbed Wednesday morning near a Times Square hotel. Police said the two women were each stabbed in the back about 4 a.m. by a man who had engaged them in a short conversation near the W Hotel.

An hour earlier, a 30-year-old man was stabbed twice in the stomach a few blocks away as he and a friend waited on a subway platform in Rockefeller Center. Police said the attacker was after a cell phone.

The three attacked Wednesday are in the hospital and are expected to survive.

Kelly said investigators recovered the knife used in at least two of the attacks when they arrested the suspect.

Ganda Krisananuwatara told the Times she and McCarthy had planned a two-week vacation in New York.

"Everyone was so excited," Krisananuwatara said. "They told me to take pictures — now I'll have the most terrible story when I get back."

McCarthy thought he had been punched, but the knife blade went about an inch into his chest, piercing the right ventricle of his heart.

Krisananuwatara's mother said she will be joining her daughter in New York today. "I cannot imagine how she has handled all of this," she said.

She said the couple began dating their final year at Langham Creek High School.

"Chris is very soft-spoken, very helpful and caring," Poolsin Krisananuwatara said. "He doesn't speak much, but he has a big heart."

McCarthy is a computer technician. His parents own Computer Medics in Katy.

The attacks drew comparisons with the 1990 killing of a 22-year-old tourist from Utah who was stabbed in a subway station while defending his mother during a robbery. Seven youths were convicted in the murder; all were sentenced to maximum terms of 25 years to life in prison.

Some tourists said New York still feels safe.

''There are a lot of police around. I don't think these stabbings are just random acts," said Scott McCoig, 24, of Detroit.

McCoig said he will still use the subway. ''It's the best way to travel," he said.

Staff writer Anita Hassan and the Associated Press contributed to this report.