A woman says a crazed man punched her in the face on a New York City subway after she requested that he stop “manspreading.”
The New York Post reported that Samantha Saia, 37, was on the N train en route to Manhattan Thursday morning when she says a man sat next to her and began to “spread excessively” — and claims he responded with violence.
A passenger captured part of the incident on video.
The footage, which picks up after the man allegedly punched Saia in the mouth, shows a Good Samaritan restraining the man and telling him to get off at the next stop.
“Listen man…I’m not on duty right now but I will f**k you up,” the Good Samaritan is heard telling the alleged assailant.
Saia claimed she sustained a bloodied lip and hit her head in the unprovoked attack. Following the incident, Saia reportedly published a Facebook post to explain how she put in her earbuds and attempted to ignore the man as he went on an unintelligible tirade.
“When I asked him to give me room, he yelled ‘B**ch, you ain’t nothing! I’ve raped white b**ches like you, f**ing c**t! You ain’t nothing, you f**ing b**ch!’,” she wrote.
The New York Daily News later identified the Good Samaritan as Victor Conde, 29, a government worker from Bensonhurst. Conde explained how he decided to step in after witnessing the man punching Saia and seeing nobody come to her aid.
“I got in his face and confronted him. I said ‘What are you doing?’” he said. “I told him I was an off-duty officer to diffuse the situation and he changed his tune. I just think he was a sick individual.”
Alarmingly, Saia said that she tried to report the incident to the NYPD but was given the runaround.
Saia told the Daily News that she first went to the 17th Precinct stationhouse, where two officers referred her to Transit District 34, which has jurisdiction. At the hospital, she called transit district headquarters and an officer allegedly told her that she can file a report from anywhere so coming to them would be wasting her time.
Based on that advice, Saia claimed she went back to the 17th Precinct and the officer she originally encountered remained less than willing to help her.
“She said she could take a report but it just would loop back to Transit District 34 so…,” Saia said.
“She then told me if I see him [her attacker] again please to call 911. What am I going to say, ‘Please don’t attack me while I call 911?’,” she told the newspaper.
Frustrated, Saia recounted her experience with NYPD to social media. The man who filmed the incident saw the post and reached out to her.
The NYPD announced that they’ve launched an internal investigation into why the two officers refused to let Saia report the assault.
[Featured Image: Samantha Saia/Facebook]
