Subway fare evasion suspect punches officer at Manhattan station, police say
NEW YORK - Police say a woman assaulted officers after they tried to stop her from entering the subway without paying.
It happened around 7:15 p.m. Thursday at the 59th Street-Lexington Avenue station in Midtown, Manhattan.
Police said two K-9 officers were positioned inside the station when they saw the woman jump over the turnstile to enter the system.
The officers stopped the woman, but said she tried to jump through a second time. When they confronted her again, she allegedly punched one of them and scratched their hand.
The 34-year-old woman was taken into custody and charged with several counts, including assaulting and harassment. Meanwhile, the officer was treated for minor injuries.
The attack comes just weeks after the NYPD launched a crackdown on fare evaders, deploying an additional 800 officers to stop people from jumping the turnstiles.
"The tone of law and order starts at the turnstiles," NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said during the announcement last month. "Fare evasion enforcement and turnstile presence is a key component to our crime-reduction strategy."
Shortly after that announcement, police said a 24-year-old woman punched an officer and broke his nose when he tried serving her a fare evasion summons. That officer was also taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
Last year, the department issued more than 124,000 civil summonses and more than 1,300 criminal summonses for fare evasion, its highest number of fare evasion tickets in at least five years.