#Man stabbed in Staten Island ferry terminal was defending woman

The man stabbed in the Staten Island ferry terminal over the weekend was a good Samaritan who was trying to defend a woman from an apparently drunk man who had been harassing her, he said.

Dylan Spinosa, 20, told NBC 4 New York he had just returned to the St. George Ferry Terminal Sunday night when he and his friends spotted a stranger, identified by police as Eric Shields, 47, in the terminal bothering every woman in his path.

“Every female he passed, he had to say something sexual,” Spinosa said. “He was telling them how all women have to sell their nudes online, how they have to sell their bodies.”

Shields, of Norfolk, Va., briefly relented after Spinosa and a 30-year-old man shooed him away — but he returned, Spinosa said.

“Now he was practically following this woman who was like, ‘Leave me alone, please stop,’ and he’s telling her he’s going to do all this sexual stuff to her,’” Spinosa said.

So Spinosa — who was returning from his first night out in the city since the pandemic began — and the other man stepped in once again.

The older man, who declined to give his name, told CBS 2 the suspect called him a homophobic slur.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Um, what are you looking at?’ and then he said the F-word and I proceeded to step up to him,” he said.

Shields allegedly socked him in the face — and when Spinosa stepped in to separate the two, he became the new target.

“As we were walking away, my friend screamed,” Spinosa told NBC. “As I turned, it felt like he punched me.”

He had actually been stabbed, according to police. A knife was lodged in his back, and blood trickled down to his leg, he told the network.

He was taken to Richmond University Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, as was the other good Samaritan, according to police.

When reached by the Post Tuesday, a woman who answered the phone at Dylan’s home said he couldn’t talk because he wasn’t feeling well and had to return to the emergency room.

Spinosa, who wants to become a firefighter, told NBC that he “absolutely” would step in again if he found himself in the same situation. 

“There would be no hesitation,” he said.

Shields was arrested and charged with second-degree assault, criminal possession of a weapon, menacing and harassment, cops said.

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force has been notified and is investigating, police said Tuesday.