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A woman was brutally beaten with her own cane inside a Manhattan subway station, police said, and the shocking attack was captured on video. The terrifying incident happened just after 3 a.m. Friday, according to the New York Police , at the 2/3 station at West 116th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem.New York Police Traffic Chief Michael Kemper said the man began hitting the woman with his cane “dozens of times” since beating her with a belt, hitting her on the head and body during the attack, which lasted approximately two minutes.
NEW YORK — The man who was seen on video allegedly beating a woman with his own baton in a brutal attack at a Harlem subway station has been arrested, according to police sources, but only after police allegedly dropped him off at freedom after talking to him after the incident.
Norton Blake was captured early Wednesday morning for the morning beating inside the 2/3 station at West 116th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem on September 1, law enforcement sources said. According to police, Blake, 43, was charged with assault.
The terrifying incident occurred after the victim, a 60-year-old woman, argued with the suspect as they walked up the stairs of the station.
That’s when Blake (pictured below) began hitting the woman repeatedly. NYPD Traffic Chief Michael Kemper said he began hitting the woman with his baton “dozens of times” and hitting her with a belt, hitting her on the head and body during the attack that lasted about two minutes.
New York Police said the 43-year-old man attacked a woman in a Harlem subway station, using a belt and his baton while punching the victim.
Video showed the woman immobile until the man finally stopped.
Blake then left, and the police caught up with him five days later. Information from Blake’s attorney was not immediately available. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to assaulting an officer and resisting arrest after jumping subway turnstiles at another Harlem station, police said.
The victim was transported to NYC Health and Hospitals/Harlem with extensive bruising. It is hoped that she will recover.
The morning after the incident occurred, police spoke to Blake at the scene and let him go, NBC New York has learned.
“Under no circumstances should this woman have been beaten like that. It appears there is a preliminary cross-reporting situation here. It’s going to be resolved,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said.
It is not clear what the so-called cross-reporting was or whether the NYPD had reviewed video showing the attack.
Other travelers who viewed the video on Tuesday commented that no one seemed to intervene or offer to intervene to help the woman, and they were not surprised.
“People don’t get involved like they used to,” said Irene Richardson. “Thank God she’s alive. That’s a blessing in itself.”
After some questioned why the station agent did not try to help or intervene during the violent incident, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said the agent “absolutely did the right thing” by taking a video.
“She collected evidence by videotaping what was happening, she immediately contacted the rail control center where an NYPD officer is stationed. So, contacting the RCC but also the NYPD, that actually prompted a quick response from the NYPD,” Lieber said, adding that the agency is training officers on how to deal with what he called “conflict situations.”
An investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, in Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their suggestions by logging into the Crime Stoppers website.
2023-09-07 02:31:42
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