Four females — ages 13 to 15 — were arrested after they beat and tried to rob a 71-year-old woman in a Brooklyn subway while she was on her way to church, police told the New York Post.
One 13-year-old, one 14-year-old, and two 15-year-olds were taken into custody on Wednesday and Thursday, the paper said, adding that they each face charges of robbery, assault, and harassment in connection with the New Year’s Day incident.
‘She punched me in my face, and I have my glasses on, and I have a cut on my nose. When she punched me in my face, my glasses flew to the floor.’
One of the 15-year-olds was arrested in September for allegedly attacking a police officer in Queens to prevent the cop from arresting another person, law enforcement sources told the Post, adding that the other three females “had no prior brushes with the law.”
The elderly victim fought back
Linda Rosa — a retired Metropolitan Transportation Authority computer operation worker who lives in East New York – got off a No. 3 train at Hoyt Street just after 6 p.m. and had just passed through a turnstile when one of the four females tried to grab her purse, she recounted to the Post in an initial story.
Rosa told the paper her inner reaction was, “Oh, no, this is not going to happen today.” Another female also tried to grab Rosa’s purse and actually asked her, “Oh, you want to fight?” But Rosa wouldn’t let go of her property.
“The first person kept fighting,” Rosa recalled to the Post. “She punched me in my face, and I have my glasses on, and I have a cut on my nose. When she punched me in my face, my glasses flew to the floor.”
She continued to the paper, “Meanwhile, the other young lady was still trying to distract me to get my pocketbook or go into my purse, to snatch something out of my purse.” Rosa told the Post one of the attackers grabbed a pocket pouch containing her ID and medical records, after which Rosa upped the intensity of her self-defense.
“I was still wrestling with the first person,” Rosa told the paper. “Then I was trying to kick her in between her legs, but my leg wouldn’t stretch far enough, so I believe that’s when I fell … and then she stomped on me.”
One might assume she would have simply covered up and hoped the attack would end soon — but the opposite happened.
“I got an impression in me that she was going to stomp me again, but she was going to aim towards my head,” Rosa explained to the Post. “So I got up right away, and with that, I grabbed her braids and twirled them around my right hand, and then I pulled her down. She had her head down. Then the other young lady said, ‘Let her go.’ And I said, ‘Oh, no, I’m not letting her go.’”
The paper said Rosa yelled for help — and the teen who grabbed her pocket pouch dropped it and came at her. But Rosa told the Post she pulled off the same move on the second female with her free hand: “I grabbed her hair and twisted it around my left hand. So I had them both facedown … [like] rams when they’re getting ready to fight.”
The other females repeatedly screamed at Rosa to “Let them go! Let them go!” but the Post said Rosa refused and again yelled for help: “I need assistance! I need assistance!”
Finally, she let go of the two attackers and began picking up her belongings from the floor, the paper said. Then the defeated crew ran up the subway steps as Rosa told them she was going to call the police, the paper reported.
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Rosa — who retired from the MTA in 2016 after working for the agency for about 42 years — then headed to the nearby Brooklyn Tabernacle Church, where the staff tended to her and called 911.
She was taken to the Brooklyn Hospital Center for treatment.
Rosa said she is thankful she wasn’t hurt worse.
“Thank God they didn’t have no weapons,” she noted to the paper. “I thank God I didn’t have a heart attack and a stroke and die!”
You can view a video here showing the suspects going through the subway station turnstile.
‘I forgive them’
Rosa added to the Post, “I forgive them. They do not know what they do. They don’t know what they did. It’s just teenagers acting foolish.”
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Arrest, Brooklyn, New york city, Female teens arrested, Elderly woman, Subway, Church, Crime
