The subway rider who was seemingly randomly stabbed by a deranged and grinning assailant is a diligent Manhattan restaurant employee who was headed home after a long day at work, a friend mentioned on Tuesday.

Roberto Gaspar, 25, was merely engrossed in his phone when a violent individual approached him from behind on a No. 7 train at the 111th Street station in Corona, Queens, on Sunday night, as recounted by his friend and confirmed by police sources.

The attacker, whose identity is unknown but who was caught in a surveillance photo with a wide smile, then inflicted wounds with an “unknown sharp object,” stabbing Gaspar once in the neck and twice in the back, according to officers. 

Gaspar was taken to New York Presbyterian/ Queens Hospital, where pal Tomas Calel, 35, told The Post he now is hooked up to a ventilator, unable to speak.

“He is serious. He can’t talk,” Calel said in Spanish outside the victim’s Queens apartment building. “He’s in the ICU. He’s hooked up to machines.

“The doctors say maybe he’ll talk, maybe. We are hoping he recovers and will be able to talk.

“I feel bad for him,” Calel said. “He didn’t see anything. He doesn’t know who did it.”

Gaspar is originally from Guatemala but has been in the US for seven or eight years — working and sending money back home to his family, according to his friend. The victim has four sisters, one of whom also lives in the city, Calel said. 

The victim typically works 10-hour shifts five days a week at a Manhattan restaurant, where he “does everything” from cooking to cleaning to dishwashing – and often takes on a sixth day in busy times to send money home to help his parents and three other sisters, Calel said.  

Gaspar takes the train to and from work and was headed home when the incident happened, according to Calel. 

“I’m angry. He didn’t do anything wrong,” Calel said. “I believe [the attacker] is a bad guy. Why did he do that? I want them to catch this guy.

“He’s laughing,” Calel added as he looked at the image of the gleeful suspect. “He doesn’t care what he did to my friend.”

He described his badly injured buddy as “a quiet guy” who “doesn’t make trouble” and simply goes home to sleep after his long work days. 

Calel said he plans to visit Gaspar in the hospital, where the victim’s sister – who is “crying a lot” and “scared” – was already gathered with her husband. 

Calel, who works at a different Manhattan restaurant, said he is now afraid to ride the train at night. 

“Sometimes I go [to work] by train, sometimes I go by bike. I take the train at nights, I come home at 10 at nights,” he said. “I’m afraid to take the train now because what happened to my friend could happen to me, too.”

Anyone with information on the assault is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at or on X @NYPDTips.