A 14-year-old boy with a rap sheet was stabbed in the face steps from the migrant shelter where he lives in the shadow of Times Square Wednesday evening, cops and sources said.
The teen was knifed above his left eye just after 7 p.m. at the corner of West 44th Street and Eighth Avenue – down the block from the 1,331-room ROW NYC Hotel which has housed migrants for nearly three years, cops said.
Medics rushed him to Bellevue Hospital, where he was initially listed in critical condition, but had stabilized by Thursday morning, police said.
Two ski mask-wearing teens – one last seen wearing a red and black hoodie, and the other wearing a black hoodie, fled the scene and have not yet been caught, authorities said.
Law enforcement sources say the teen victim, who lives in the sprawling migrant facility, has four prior juvenile arrests – three grand larcenies and one robbery.
The robbery occurred back on Feb. 7 at the 36th Street subway station in Sunset Park, where the youth and his pals surrounded a man, threatened him with belts and snatched his chain, the sources said.
The motive for the brazen violence remained unknown Thursday.