A young Brooklyn woman faced a nightmare scenario when a stranger accosted her on her way to work, and claimed her as “mine,” until bystanders stepped in.
Brooklyn woman assaulted on subway
The woman, who asked not to be named, was on her way to a lifeguard shift Sunday morning, when she was violently grabbed by the suspect.
“And he’s putting his arms around me, and I’m pushing him off of me, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know you,'” she recounted.
She was initially able to get away, but the man followed her onto the train platform.
“He’s like, ‘Come on, let’s go.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know you,'” the woman told WCBS-TV. “He comes close to my face, and he’s like, ‘You don’t know me.'”
She said she tried to get him to leave her alone, but the situation escalated when her train arrived.
“When the train came, like I said, he got more aggressive, and that’s when he, like, bear-hugged me to the point where, like, my arms are restricted,” she recalled.
“The only thing he just kept saying was, ‘You’re mine now, you’re mine now, you’re coming with me, you’re coming with me.'”
One man who witnessed the situation, Rondel Whitfield, told CBS News that he was on his way to church when he saw what was happening.
“I said, ‘Brother, please, just let the lady go. You know what I’m saying? Let the lady go.’ He’s like, ‘No.’ He just started being real barbaric. Like, I’ve never seen nothing like that in my life,” Whitfield said.
The New York Post reported that other men on the elevated platform also intervened, shouting at the suspect to release the victim.
When the woman tried to escape, he allegedly threw her to the ground and again grabbed her in a bear hug.
Brooklyn woman saved by fellow commuters
Police said that bystanders managed to pull the woman away, with some of them striking the assailant.
“I’m gonna f**k you up!” one man shouted, as video showed multiple good Samaritans hitting and stomping on the attacker.
“Somebody try to tell you something, chill the f**k out?” one man is heard saying. “Now you got it!”
The woman managed to flee to an MTA booth, where an employee sheltered her inside before moving her to another room until police arrived.
“About the guys that stepped in, I’m very, very, very thankful because without them, I would not be home,” the victim said.
The NYPD reported that the woman had minor injuries to her shoulder, arms, and stomach.
Authorities identified the suspect as 42-year-old Fredrick Marshall of Queens. When arrested, he was allegedly carrying a knife and a blackjack.
He has been charged with third-degree assault, two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and second-degree harassment.
Despite the serious nature of the incident, prosecutors told WCBS that the charges are not bail eligible, and Marshall has been placed on supervised release.
“It’s unacceptable,” the victim said. “It’s really insane to me how they could just release somebody after they did that.”
Good Samaritans stabbed by suspect stalking woman
Just weeks prior, a separate incident in Brooklyn saw a pair of good Samaritans stabbed while helping a woman who believed she was being followed.
The NYPD said the suspect in that case attacked a 26-year-old man and a 29-year-old man with a knife around 1:30 a.m. in Kensington.
The victims had come to aid a 31-year-old woman who claimed she was being stalked.
The same woman had reportedly approached the men earlier that night, also saying she was being chased.
Both men agreed to help her home, only to later encounter the suspect a second time.
The alleged stalker was believed to be the same man following both women, authorities said. Both victims were hospitalized in stable condition.
“I just felt so sorry that they like got hurt like that. It just breaks my heart that they got hurt,” the woman said.
“I want to thank them like so much from the bottom of my heart. I hope I see them again to like say thank you in person.”
