As the NYPD considers several options about how to combat the recent uptick in subway crimes, more attacks keep happening: two men were arrested on Thursday after both punched women in separate subway assaults.
According to the Daily News, the first attack occurred at Penn Station around 8 a.m. yesterday. Liesl Mae Mayango, 26, was waiting for the 1 train with her back to a pillar when a man approached her from behind, grabbed her by the jacket, punched her twice in the chest, and threw her to the ground. “He was shouting something. He looked like a crazy person,” she told them.
Police say that homeless man Randy Evans, 55, was arrested in the incident and charged with assault and disorderly conduct. The News says that he has 28 prior arrests, and was taken to Beth Israel for a psychological evaluation. "I couldn’t keep my mind off it. I still haven’t got over it," Mayango added.
Jenna Siladie
Then around 12:30 p.m., 26-year-old Jenna Siladie was waiting for the 2 train at Times Square when she was sucker-punched by a different man. "I just felt this thunk on my head, and I didn't even see the guy," the Astoria resident told the News. "He punched me on the side of the head." Suspect Ronald Khealie, 44, was arrested soon after.
"It's really sad. I know this happened to me, but I feel sorry for him," Siladie said of Khealie, who lives in a residential center for the developmentally disabled in Jamaica Hills. "He's obviously unwell, and somehow felt threatened by me, I don't know. I didn't even see him in the subway when I was in the train."
These two attacks came a day after a man apparently used a needle or another sharp object to stab an R train passenger.
As of Wednesday, there had been at least 38 assaults in the subway this year to date, which includes six slashings (compared to three over the same period in 2015), and four stabbings, (compared to two over the same period last year). While officials insist there is no pattern to the uptick, the cops are planning to give the MTA a proposal to ban career criminals from the subway as part of his MTA crime-prevention strategy.
Police Commissioner Bratton has also vowed that the NYPD will start waking up sleeping straphangers, ostensibly to prevent them from being victimized. But homeless advocates worry this is a ruse to chase homeless people out of the subway. "We know this is about targeting homeless people," says one homeless advocate from Picture the Homeless. "The drunk banker asleep on the train isn't going to be treated the same as the homeless guy with a bunch of bags. This is all about homelessness, but with this cover story they can lie and say it's everyone."
