Terrifying video shows the moments a hammer-wielding man crime” target=”_blank”>kicked< subway station and attacked her with the weapon, leaving her critically injured and bleeding from the brain, officials said Friday.
The victim was on her way home from work and had been entering the Queens Plaza subway station in Queens just after 11:20 p.m. Thursday when the man approached her from behind, the New York Police Department (crime) said. The New York Post identified the victim as a research scientist with the New York City Health Department.
“This is an unprovoked, brutal and appalling crime on a woman who was just trying to get home after a day’s work – a woman who dedicated her life to helping others,” NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said Friday.
Startling video released by the department shows the 57-year-old woman slowly walking down the stairs into the subway station as the hooded suspect follows just steps behind her.
He kicks her once and then again, but the woman holds the railing and appears to remain upright as she slowly descends the stairs, the footage shows. But the unrelenting attacker then pulls out a hammer and continues his violent assault.
The NYPD video shows the man swinging the hammer repeatedly at the victim’s head. Police said he struck the woman in the head several times before she disappears out of the camera’s view. The brute then calmly takes her purse and saunters back up the stairs.
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The victim suffered a fractured skull, a brain bleed and several head wounds, the NYPD said. She was rushed to an area hospital, where she was listed in critical condition and needed surgery.
“A woman taking the train should not be struck in the head with a hammer,” Mayor Eric Adams told the New York Post Friday. “We need to catch him. He needs to be incarcerated.”
The city and NYPD had recently added more NYPD patrols, including to that specific station, amid an uptick in subway crimes.
The suspect was wearing a black coat with hood up and blue jeans. He was also wearing a black face mask, black shoes and blue jeans.
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Police are asking anyone with information regarding the attack to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).