New York Post

MENACE ON J TRAIN AS RIDERS DO NOTHING

Woman terrorized in viral subway video

- By SAM RASKIN Additional reporting by Tina Moore

Disturbing footage shared on social media shows a person menacing subway riders, kicking a train-car window and yanking on a woman’s hair as she tries to escape while other straphange­rs avoid the outburst.

The roughly two-minute video posted Wednesday on Twitter by Joel Fischer shows a person who appears to be unwell screaming obscenitie­s, before sitting down and grabbing a J-train rider’s hair as the woman attempts to move away.

“Somebody help me,” the trapped, anguished woman says softly. Meanwhile, fellow commuters either looked on, moved away from or seemed to ignore the incident without coming to her assistance.

About 30 seconds later, the apparently disturbed straphange­r shouts, “Get up!” prompting the unlucky woman targeted by the eruption to stand. The perpetrato­r — wearing an ill-fitting white sweatshirt, black pants and gray sneakers — then shoves her away before storming off in the opposite direction on the train.

“Shut the f--k up!” the unruly rider then yells while pacing up and down the train car.

“This is what I deal with,” the man who recorded the incident says to the camera.

“NYC, demons, you understand?” he adds.

The video went on to show the unstable person continuing to yell, standing on the subway car seat while repeatedly kicking the window as the train approaches the Delancey Street Essex Street station.

Troubling mystery

It’s unclear when the viral video was taken and who recorded the footage. A tweet sharing the video received more than 14,000 retweets and 24,000 likes as of Sunday morning.

An NYPD representa­tive told The Post on Sunday that the department was not aware of the incident.

“There are no reports on file regarding the video,” said a spokespers­on.

Commenters on the troubling video lamented that straphange­rs did not aid the woman who appeared to be randomly targeted by the subway rider.

“I trust that if I was there, I would [have] done something,” tweeted Kenneth Adams.

“I’ve lived in NYC my whole life, what the f--k is going on, real talk?!? NYC!!! We gotta be better!!!

“You mean to tell me several of yall guys couldn’t come together to help that lady ???? ” replied another Twitter user.

“No one helped ? But this person that films just prayed to a god ? How’s that gonna work,” fumed another commenter. “Why is no one stepping in[?]”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States