This Tuesday, a New York teen that was caught on video assaulting a family on the subway in Manhattan was arrested and taken into custody by police.
The girl, who’s name was not released due to her young age, turned herself into the NYPD yesterday morning in the same spot that she assaulted a family just a day prior. She has been charged with two counts of assault for attacking 51-year-old Sue Young after harassing her and her family, who were all visiting from Nevada, and then attacking bystander Joanna Lin that was filming the girl assaulting Young.
Young told reporters that the girl and two of her friends initially began by sitting across from the family on the subway and pointing and laughing at them. In an effort to diffuse the situation and keep her 11-year-old twins safe, Young tried to laugh with the teenaged girls and stop them from taunting the family. Apparently this is what truly enraged the girls, as they then began yelling insults and threats while standing over the seated family.
As the interaction became more heated, some bystanders on the train attempted to intervene while one recorded the incident. When the teen who was later arrested noticed Lin filming her and her friends, she rushed over to Lin and allegedly punched her multiple times. Young told reporters that the girl “went to Joanna and just punched her. I mean, punch, punch, punch, like repeatedly. I saw at least three, maybe two or three [punches]” before she stood up from her seat.
Once Young stood up herself, one of the girl’s friends approached her and began yelling. Young pushed that girl away from her in an effort to get to Lin, but it only made the girl turn her attention back to Young. Young said, “Well, as soon as I made contact and pushed her shoulders away, they all came after me. I backed up, but the girl in the white t-shirt came slugging at me . . . She grabbed my hair, I grabbed her hair, and I basically just grabbed onto her hair to shield my face because she was swinging.”
As the girl was wailing on Young, other bystanders finally intervened and separated the girls from the family, allowing the Young family to get off at the next available stop. Lin told reporters that she does not regret involving herself in the altercation and is happy that the girl decided to take accountability and turn herself in. She said, “I also hope she gets therapy, counseling, and mentorship needed to move up from here.”
The police initially thought the assault to be a hate crime, since the victims were Asian and the teenaged girl is not. However, Young and Lin have both stated that they don’t believe race played a factor in the attack, which left it at just two counts of regular assault instead. Lucky her. As Lin said, hopefully the teen is able to receive the help that she needs to move past this incident and stops swinging on other subway riders.
You can watch the ABC7 coverage of the viral video here.