Subway Menace Accused Of Shoving Woman Into Train, Several Other Crimes Arrested
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – An alleged subway menace is now in custody after another violent attack in a Brooklyn subway station Wednesday night.
Cops say disturbing video shows him shove an innocent bystander head-first into a subway car.
He was seen lunging at two men before attacking the woman who goes face-first against a sitting train at the Dekalb Avenue station.
It happened around 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The person who took the video told CBS2 the victim left without getting any help and the suspect - believed to be Isaiah Thompson - fled into the subway tunnel.
Authorities now tell CBS2 Thompson has been arrested and charged with menacing and assault for that attack.
The 23-year-old is no stranger to the law. He's been arrested at least 18 times since 2017, including last May for exposing himself on a C-train at West 14th Street, and allegedly pulling a train's emergency brake causing massive delays system-wide.
In that time, surveillance video also showed Thompson recklessly riding outside on the back of a 2-train.
MTA President Andy Byford says he wants Thompson banned from the system.
"This individual is a criminal and it's unacceptable that he be allowed to continue to create mayhem on the subways... He should be banned from the system - period," Byford said in a statement.
Transportation advocate Danny Pearlstein says giving the MTA power to ban anyone would be a waste of time and money.
"The amount of policing and surveillance that would be required to effectively ban people from the subway would take away vital resources that we need to actually operate buses and trains," Pearlstein said.
Last year Thompson was seen hanging onto the side of a C-train and another time he was accused of a slashing inside a train station.
"That's really shocking I don't understand how that could happen," an Upper East Side resident told CBS2's Lisa Rozner.
"Maybe the MTA could have more people helping the good citizens in the city of New York," New Yorker Enrique Gallego added.
These attacks are some of many that have happened on MTA passengers this year so on Thursday CBS2 took these concerns back to Mayor de Blasio.
"More resources are being put in the subways," de Blasio said.
"We also know in terms of the MTA overall crime has been driven down for years and years by the NYPD very, very effectively and that we are at a point overall in this city that crime is about the level of the 1950's."
Despite thatclaim by the mayor, NYPD numbers show in the last month there have been 206 transit crimes – up 5.6 percent from 195 last year.
Compared to nine years ago - transit crimes are up nearly 12 percent.
"I haven't rode the subway in over 25 years," Mary Horton of Harlem said.
When Thompson was arrested in May, the Manhattan District Attorney asked he be held on $25,000 bail but a judge set it at $5,000 instead.
He is still due in court Nov. 20 for those arrests.
CBS2 asked the MTA how they would go about banning anyone from the subway system. A spokesperson told reporter Ali Bauman the MTA believes there are legal mechanisms to ban violent recidivist criminals and sex offenders however, the agency would not elaborate as to how.
