Subway violence prompts concern for safety, assaults up by 10%

MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11) -- The Transport Workers Union Local 100, is looking for a hero or two who came to the defense of an MTA worker who was being attacked on a crowded subway platform. 

“I think it is disgusting. It is inhumane,” Shimeia Coulter, a union rep told PIX11 News. “We are here to help people.”   

MTA workers are upset with the vicious attack against one of their own. It happened Wednesday morning during rush hour in the Wall Street subway station just before 6 am. Police say a 58-year-old female on duty MTA employee found a man lying under a bench who then punched the MTA worker in the face.  

A male subway rider tried to help the MTA worker, police say, but he too was assaulted by the man. A crowd of Subway riders then surrounded the attacker until police arrived and arrested 25-year-old Adellahi Mohammed and charged him with two counts of assault.  

“We are looking for that person who helped,” Coulter told PIX11 News. “It takes a village,” he added.  

This has been a terrible week for violence in the subways. An innocent bystander was killed in a Bronx subway shooting that left five others injured on Monday. The next day a woman allegedly whacked a Cellist on the head with a metal bottle in Herald Square.  

Police are looking for a man who they believe stabbed a 29-year-old man at the Queens Plaza subway station on Thursday.  

While murder and rape are down in the subways compared to this time last year, other crimes are up, robbery is up more than five percent, and felony assault by more than 10 %.  

“I take the four and the five twice a day and it is comforting to know that there are people willing to help when unfortunate situations arise,” Collette Dibenedittos, a subway rider, told PIX11 News. 

As the union of subway workers tries to find the man who defended the MTA worker, MTA officials called the attack “abhorrent” and added they were “thankful in this instance customers were there to support her, and NYPD responded and made an arrest.” 

The Transport Workers Union will be holding a press conference next week to demand serious consequences for the man who attacked the MTA worker. The union is also hoping by then, they will have found the person or people who defended the MTA worker.