A 24-year-old food vendor was slashed several times in Central Park on Tuesday afternoon in what police and local reports described as a dispute over vending territory, leaving the woman hospitalized and detectives searching for a 38-year-old suspect.
The attack drew swift attention because it unfolded in broad daylight on one of the busiest stretches of Manhattan’s signature park, in view of springlike crowds and near a cluster of routes used by tourists, workers and vendors. By Wednesday, investigators had publicly identified the basic outline of the case but little more. Police said the victim was hurt in the area of Center Drive near 63rd Street and was taken to a hospital in stable condition. Authorities had not released the names of either woman, announced an arrest or explained exactly how a long-running dispute between the two escalated into a midday slashing.
The known timeline begins shortly after 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, when officers were called to the south end of the park. Police and local television reports said they found a 24-year-old woman with cuts to the right side of her neck, right hand and right leg. She was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital with injuries described as non-life-threatening. Detectives said the victim and the suspect, identified only as a 38-year-old woman, were food vendors involved in an “ongoing dispute” over territory in the park. Authorities said the suspect ran from the area on foot after the attack. ABC7 reported that she was accompanied by her husband and son as she fled through the Heckscher area. By late Wednesday, the search was still active and police had not said whether any of the three had been located for questioning.
Police accounts, repeated by multiple local outlets, also say the attacker took the victim’s belongings before fleeing. West Side Rag, citing the NYPD, reported that the suspect slashed the younger woman multiple times and then left with property taken from the scene. That detail matters because it suggests detectives are examining the case not only as an assault but also as a possible robbery. Still, the public record remains thin. Police have not said what weapon was used, whether it has been recovered or whether the two women were working from carts, tables or another type of stand when the confrontation began. They also have not described what witnesses saw in the moments just before the attack, even though the location sits near one of the most heavily traveled sections of the park’s southern loop.
The dispute itself appears to stretch back months. NBC New York, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the two women had known each other since at least an incident in December. ABC7 said detectives linked Tuesday’s assault to a previous confrontation on Christmas Eve and said the younger woman had been “the aggressor” in that earlier clash. Authorities have not publicly released a complaint, report number or court filing tied to that earlier episode, so it remains unclear whether police made an arrest then, whether either side filed a formal accusation or whether the matter ended without charges. That gap leaves an important hole in the story. Investigators appear confident enough to characterize Tuesday’s violence as part of a continuing fight, but they have not yet shown the public the records that would explain how serious the earlier dispute was or what warning signs may have existed before this week.
The setting helps explain why a fight over territory in Central Park can quickly become a high-stakes dispute. Central Park covers 843 acres and draws more than 42 million visits a year, according to the Central Park Conservancy. On warm days, the park’s south end becomes a dense mix of walkers, cyclists, families, carriage riders and tourists moving between Midtown, Columbus Circle and the park interior. Food sellers compete for that traffic. City rules require mobile food vendors to carry a license, and park-based vending operates through permits and approvals tied to city health and parks authorities. The city has not said whether the women in Tuesday’s case were fully licensed, operating under park authorization or working in violation of any permit rules. But the broader system makes clear that a vending spot in a high-traffic part of Central Park is not just a place to stand. It is a place with commercial value, limited space and rules that can turn a personal feud into a dispute over income.
That pressure had already drawn City Hall’s attention before the slashing. In May 2025, Mayor Eric Adams announced a multi-agency quality-of-life initiative for Central Park that specifically cited illegal vending as one of the recurring issues officials wanted to address. In that announcement, Adams said families, joggers, cyclists and tourists “must be safe and feel safe” in the park, while city officials said parks officers and police had increased enforcement around unauthorized vending and related complaints. Tuesday’s assault does not appear to fit neatly into the usual quality-of-life category. It was not a summons matter or a routine park violation. It was a violent crime investigation. But the city’s earlier focus on vending pressure in Central Park gives the case a wider frame. Even before one vendor allegedly attacked another, officials had already signaled that competition for park space was serious enough to require extra oversight.
What happens next depends first on whether detectives identify and arrest the 38-year-old suspect. No charges had been filed publicly by Wednesday because no arrest had been announced. If the police account holds, prosecutors could eventually weigh counts tied to assault, robbery and weapon possession, but that step cannot begin in court until the suspect is in custody or formally charged by complaint. Detectives are also likely to keep working the case through witness interviews and video review. The park’s south end sits near roads, entrances and concessions that may provide surveillance footage or bystander recordings. Another open question is whether investigators will release more about the Christmas Eve dispute and whether that earlier incident led to any official contact between the women and law enforcement. The next concrete milestone, then, is not a court date but an arrest, followed by the release of a criminal complaint that fills in the missing narrative.
The attack also landed on a day when the park was unusually full. Local radio station 1010 WINS reported that the assault happened as the park was packed with people during record or near-record warmth for early March. That detail gives the case some of its shock. This was not a late-night fight in an empty corner. It was a midday burst of violence in a place built to feel open, public and ordinary. The scene police described was almost blunt in its simplicity: two vendors with a history, a fight near Center Drive, a woman left bleeding, and a suspect disappearing into the same park that had drawn crowds out to enjoy the weather. For investigators, the large number of people nearby may help the case. For the public, it sharpened the sense that a conflict over a few square feet of selling space had spilled into one of New York’s most familiar shared places.
As of Wednesday, the victim was expected to recover, the suspect remained at large and detectives were still piecing together how a feud that reportedly began months ago ended in a slashing near one of Central Park’s busiest corridors. The next public update is likely to come when police announce an arrest or release new details from the investigation.
Author note: Last updated March 11, 2026.