Teen Accused Of Dangerous C Train Prank To Face Arraignment
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A teenager accused of a dangerous subway prank will be arraigned Wednesday.
Sources say police knew of 16-year-old Keyshawn Brown already, but a tip helped nab him in the subway case.
Police led Brown in handcuffs out of the NYPD's Transit Bureau in Coney Island on Tuesday night. He is charged with arson, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment for allegedly putting a piece of metal on the southbound C train subway tracks last Thursday at the Nostrand Avenue station in Brooklyn. The metal hit the third rail when the train went over it and caused a loud explosion and brought train service to a sudden stop.
No one was hurt, but the explosion disrupted service for more than an hour during the morning rush.
Sources say the prank caused more than $5,000 in damage.
As CBS2's Dave Carlin reported, in the past Brown had allegedly bragged on social media about orchestrating his potentially deadly attacks. This latest incident was caught on video.
Max Diamond posted the video to YouTube to alert the MTA and NYPD.
"This happens several times before, and it's absolutely ridiculous. It's unsafe for passengers, the operators, conductors," Diamond said.
This is not Brown's first brush with the law, CBS2's Andrea Grymes reported. He pleaded guilty last month to assault with a weapon. The criminal complaint against him charged that Brown used a metal pipe to beat an associate over the head, CBS2's Andrea Grymes reported.
Brown, whose nickname is "Train Boy," has an arrest record and may be responsible for other acts of vandalism, CBS2's Marcia Kramer reported Tuesday.
Brown may be behind a number of other subway incidents, including possible acts of vandalism, Kramer reported. Sources told CBS2 that police are investigating a possible connection between the explosion video and one where several young men are seen repeatedly reopening the doors of a subway car, preventing the train from leaving a station.
The police probe is following an online trail that includes posts that show the changing of destination signs on a subway car, explain how train signs are stolen and another on trespassing underground, sources said. There is also an online post about subway signs hanging from a tree with the notation "the national conquestors flag."
A group of Brooklyn teens reportedly call themselves the "Conquestors," as in their conquest is to attack the subway system, Kramer reported.
New Yorkers said the teens were getting out of control.
"These kids have no fear in them. they have not been installed with fear, so they take chances and think nothing's going to happen to them," Allyson Levine said.
"You look at social media and you see young folks in fights and it's getting all these hits. I think the fact that social media is glorifying this type of behavior, it kind of promotes for people to do so," Gina Willis added.
No one else will be charged in the subway incident last week, sources said. Brown is being investigated for possible involvement in similar incidents with accomplices.
Brown also recently pleaded not guilty to assault in an unrelated case. Prosecutors say Brown hit a man in the head with a metal pipe.