Rider is off the rails
Subway sleeper ‘pepper sprays’ crowded A train
Sometimes it’s just better to let a guy spread out on a subway seat.
Rush-hour straphangers got a nasty reminder of New York’s bad old days Thursday morning when a disturbed man peppersprayed riders after being asked to stop lying down on a packed Brooklyn A train, sources said.
David Dennis — who later ranted that he was “Donald Trump” — allegedly launched the stinging attack at 8:15 a.m., when confronted by annoyed fellow riders at the High Street station in Brooklyn Heights.
A 52-year-old woman was caught in the face by the blast and a man was shoved over as Dennis darted off the train and out of the station, police sources said.
He was nabbed by transit cops after a brief chase above ground, and almost immediately went into a loony diatribe, according to the sources.
“He’s an EDP [emotionally disturbed person],” said one cop source. “He was ranting that he was Donald Trump and Michael Jackson.”
Dennis was charged with assault, menacing and harassment.
It was the latest arrest for the Brownsville man, 24, who has prior busts for strangulation, turnstile jumping and assault.
The pepper-spraystricken woman was treated at the scene, while the shoved man declined medical attention. But the delays trapped riders across the subway system.
The A train was held in the station for a 90-minute police investigation, forcing A and C trains to be rerouted along the F line.
Some F trains never even made it to Manhattan as they were forced to run along the G line in Brooklyn, incensing inconvenienced commuters.
The MTA later blamed the decision to keep the Atrain at the High Street station on the NYPD, which ordered the train held as a crime scene.
“I’m saying [the NYPD] can have the train, but you’re not having it there,” said newly minted NYC Transit head Andy Byford.
“We will give it to you — you can take it somewhere else — but you cannot stop the service for 90 minutes for a fight.”
One law-enforcement source sniped in response, “Where are you gonna move a train to if a police investigation is being conducted? Maybe Mr. Byford has a suggestion.”
The NYPD did not immediately return a request for comment.