MTA subway cleaner pepper-sprayed in Bronx attack

Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News
Updated ·2 min read
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A on-duty MTA cleaner was attacked with pepper spray early Monday morning while attempting to clean a No. 1 train at its northern terminal in the Bronx.

The 44-year-old transit worker was cleaning the train at the Van Cortlandt Park-242nd St. station shortly before 4 a.m. Monday when she encountered a passenger still on the out-of-service unit.

The passenger was sleeping when the cleaner came upon her, transit sources told the Daily News.

It’s not immediately clear what happened next, but cops said the passenger blasted the transit worker in the face with pepper spray.

Surveillance footage from the platform shows the cleaner emerging from the train car in apparent pain, a transit source said. Shortly afterward, the suspect also emerged, exiting the north end of the station. She remains at large.

There were no surveillance cameras in operation on the train car.

The cleaner was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.

“Now we have a car cleaner who asks someone to move at the end of the line so a train can be swept and made nicer for riders — and she gets pepper-sprayed? That’s beyond ridiculous,” NYC Transit President Rich Davey said in a statement.

“We’ve got video of the perpetrator; the NYPD will lock that criminal up, and prosecutors should be clear in delivering justice that targeting transit workers is unacceptable and results in consequences,” he added.

Transit workers have expressed rising concerns over on-the-job attacks in recent months, including the overnight slashing of subway conductor Alton Scott while he was on duty in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, in February.

Leaders in the Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents more than 40,000 subway and bus workers, have called for increased police presence on subway platforms and other security measures.

A spokesman for TWU Local 100 did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest incident.

Gov. Hochul cited Scott’s slashing last month when she announced her plan to deploy more mental health teams as well as members of the National Guard to the subway system.