It’s not just costumed panhandlers raising hell in Times Square — a veteran tour-bus ticket hawker says he was stabbed in the face by a competitor as they battled for customers along West 42nd Street.
Al Mamann, 54, says in a lawsuit that he was selling tickets for CitySights NY bus tours and had wandered a few steps from his spot on the corner of Eighth Avenue when a seller with rival Skyline Sightseeing raced across the street to confront him.
The worker demanded to know why he was selling tickets there, even as his own partner urged him to leave Mamann alone, the Manhattan man said.
Mamann began walking away, but the encounter got violent, he says.
“He came behind me and stabbed me from behind,” he recalled of the August 2013 dispute. “I grabbed my face, and there was blood all over my body, and when he saw the blood, he tried to run away.”
Mamann said a pen punctured his cheek, entered his mouth and knocked out two teeth, leaving a wound that required 14 stitches.
He’s suing Skyline and the worker, Romeo Marishaw, in Manhattan Supreme Court for $5 million.
After the attack, cops nabbed Marishaw, 27, of The Bronx, a block away and charged him with assault.
Marishaw faces charges in a second assault case, in which he allegedly punched and broke the jaw of another rival worker a month earlier. Both cases are pending.
Marishaw has since returned to work, infuriating Mamann.
“When I see him, I’m boiling, but I can’t do anything,” Mamann said.
The case is just another example of rising mayhem in Times Square.
This month, a Gray Line tour-bus driver crashed into a CitySights bus, injuring 14. And tensions between costumed beggars and police have resulted in a “Spider-Man” allegedly punching a cop and a protest rally by the panhandlers.
Mamann and his co-workers, who all work on commission, say Skyline, which joined the cluttered bus-tour market about 15 months ago, uses intimidation to get ahead.
It’s gotten really bad. There are some aggressive elements coming into the business.
- CitySights manager Collin West
“It’s gotten really bad. There are some aggressive elements coming into the business,” CitySights manager Collin West said.
Ticket sellers say their Skyline counterparts threaten them, interrupt their exchanges with potential customers as well as assault them.
Marishaw denies breaking anyone’s jaw or stabbing Mamann.
“That’s definitely not what happened,” Marishaw said.
He says he was selling tickets at Skyline’s stop outside the Starbucks on West 42nd Street when Mamann came into Skyline territory to sell.
When he confronted the older man, Marishaw says, Mamann intentionally bumped into him twice.
“After the second time, I punched him. I assaulted a man. I’m not disputing the incident, not at all, but there was no stabbing going on,” Marishaw told The Post.
“This bus company stuff is very territorial. One of their tactics is to send someone in front of our bus stop. They sent him to cause a little ruckus. They try to get you frustrated. I was completely provoked.”
Skyline could not be reached for comment. The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.