Victim seeks justice after 1 train assault

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An assault on a Bronx-bound number 1 train on April 4 left  a Riverdale resident bloody and gave her a chipped tooth. Now, she is hoping police can apprehend the neck brace-wearing suspect with the help of a photo she took of the man she accuses of attacking her.

The victim, 44, said she boarded the 1 train at 66th Street at 6:30 p.m., heading home to Riverdale after a job interview. The train was jam-packed and when she noticed an open seat next to the window, the victim said she took the opportunity to sit down. 

At 103rd Street, the man sitting next to her began to repeatedly push her into the train window. The victim described the man as roughly 50 years old, six feet tall and weighing 230 pounds with glasses and a neck brace. After he began pushing her into the window, the situation quickly escalated.

“I kept telling him to stop and that he was hurting me. Then he took his hand and swung and hit me in my face,” said the victim, whose name The Press withheld out of fear of retribution.

But the incident did not end there. The victim explained that the man then grabbed her by the neck and slammed her head into the train car window. To her shock, she said most of the train riders watched and did not try to intervene, except for a few young men, who pulled the alleged assailant off of her after he smashed her into the window.

“He chipped my front tooth and my lip was all bloody and scratched up. Why the seat was open, I don’t know. I guess everyone could tell he was a little off,” the victim said. 

The incident occurred between the 103rd and 110th Street stations at about 7 p.m. The unknown man got up to exit the train at 110th street after the young men intervened. At that point, the victim snapped a photo of him.

“Before he got off the train he said, ‘If I ever see you again, I’ll slice your throat,’” she said.

During a hospital visit on April 5, doctors took x-rays of the victim’s elbow and knee after she said they were bothering her from the attack. She also reported the incident to the 50th Precinct on April 5, but they told her to visit the transit police at 145th Street since the event occurred on the train.

assault, 1 train, Ashley Helms
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