Horrifying CCTV footage captured a New York woman bravely battling a scammer who followed her home on a subway train and who sexually assaulted the victim in the hallway of her apartment building.
The 28-year-old woman, who did not want to be named, was filmed fighting the man she called a “psycho” in the hallway of her home in Sunset Park in the early hours of Saturday. Her sinister assailant chased her home from the subway, then threw her at the woman – an English student originally from Venezuela – until she was satisfied.
The victim’s bold attempts to fight the fraudster also led to her life as a fierce pervert.
Speaking exclusively of NBC New Yorkthe victim said the assailant spotted her at the subway station and unknowingly followed her home.
“I turned my face and saw the man from behind. It was a shock to me, “she said.
An international student from Venezuela (left) was attacked by a man who spotted her on the subway and followed her to her apartment building in Brooklyn (right)
When the 28-year-old woman entered her apartment building in Sunset Park, the man continued to masturbate and then grabbed the victim, as seen in the security video.
The stranger entered the apartment building where the woman lives, near 44th Street and Third Avenue, and continued to have fun while making sexual comments about the woman, according to police.
The suspect then grabbed the student with one hand, continuing to touch the other, as seen in the video from the building’s security guards.
“At that moment, I thought, ‘I have to fight him for my life, because this is my life, I want to live and I don’t want to live with this trauma,'” she said, describing her decision to resist.
When the man saw the victim fighting, he grabbed her by the neck and punched her several times in the face and body before fleeing.
The woman fought, as seen in the video, which caused the attacker to punch her in the face and body. The victim suffered multiple injuries, including broken fingers
The 28-year-old student is already too scared to get on the subway or return to her apartment
Police are asking the public for help in identifying the perpetrator of Saturday’s attack, which was seen leaving the metro station.
The victim was taken to hospital for treatment for multiple injuries, including broken fingers.
Three days after the attack, the 28-year-old said she was too scared to take the subway alone and was staying away from her apartment.
The woman called on city leaders to take action to better protect women on the subway, where violent crime is on the rise.
“I know this guy is on the street right now, I know he can do the same thing he tried to do to me and other girls,” she said.
Police are asking the public for help in identifying the suspect, who was last seen wearing a dark jacket with a hood over a baseball cap and a backpack.
The New York Post reported that a strikingly similar incident occurred at Sunset Park in 2020, when police said a man followed a 25-year-old woman home from the same subway station, stole her valuables and masturbated her.
Saturday’s attack came two weeks after Christina Yuna Lee, 35, was fatally stabbed in her apartment on the Lower East Side.
Lee, an advertising artist, got out of a taxi and was followed into her building by a man who crept in before the door closed behind her.
She was then stabbed in her home. Her attacker was identified by police as Asamad Nash, a 25-year-old serial criminal who was on bail for another assault at the time of the murder.
What does the Adams Subway Safety Plan for New York look like?
The mayor’s plan outlines how the Adams administration, in partnership with the MTA and other government agencies, will address these concurrent challenges to New York’s subway systems. Investing in people will provide immediate support and protection to New Yorkers, while investing in places such as accommodation centers, safe havens, stabilizing beds and wellness vans for the homeless, and policy changes at the local, state and federal levels will provide medium-term and long-term solutions. They include:
- Deploy up to 30 joint response teams bringing together DHS, the Department of Health and Mental Health, the NYPD and community providers in high-demand locations across the city
- Training NYPD staff in the city’s subway system to enforce the rules of conduct of the MTA and the New York City Transit Authority in a fair and transparent manner
- Expanding B-HEARD’s Emergency Response Teams to six new areas, more than doubling the areas covered to 11. These teams will expand the already successful pilot response to non-violent 911 mental health calls with professionals on mental health
- Incorporate medical services into DHS sites serving vulnerable homeless people. DHS ‘Extended Safe Asylum Programs and Stabilizing Beds will offer on-site physical and behavioral health care to meet customer needs immediately
- Immediate improvement of inter-government coordination with weekly meetings of the “Working Group on Improved Work”, which brings together senior leaders from 13 city and state agencies for rapid problem solving
- Establish new Drop-in Centers to provide an immediate way for people to enter indoors, and explore the possibility of locating Drop-in Centers near key metro stations for direct passage of people from trains and platforms to safe spaces
- Simplifying the process of accommodation in a maintenance home and reducing the amount of documents required to prove eligibility
- Calls on the state government to expand resources for psychiatric beds and amend Kendra’s law to improve the provision of mental health care for New Yorkers in assisted outpatient treatment
- Requirement – instead of asking – everyone to leave the train and the station at the end of the line
Police said 25-year-old Asamad Nash, a homeless criminal from his career, followed Lee home and attacked her, leaving her bloodied body in the bathtub.
Last month, New York City Mayor Eric Adams unveiled a subway safety plan designed to quell violence in the criminal transportation system.
As part of the initiative, 1,000 police officers have been deployed on several subway lines to increase public safety.
A week after Adams’ announcement, Dr. Nina Rothschild, a scientist with the New York Department of Health, was knocked down a staircase and repeatedly hit with a hammer at Queens Plaza Subway Station, leaving her in critical condition.
Police arrested 57-year-old William Blount on Sunday in connection with the brutal attack, accusing him of attempted murder, robbery and assault.
So far this year, 320 crimes have been committed in the transit system – a 60 percent increase over the same period last year.
Crime in New York is on the rise, with homicides, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, grand thefts and hate crimes on the rise.
