'Go Back to Your Own Country': 3 Teenage Girls Charged in Hate Crime

BOSTON, MA — Three teenage girls were arraigned this week for hate crimes, after allegedly harassing and assaulting a woman they believed to be an immigrant on an MBTA train out of Savin Hill last week.

According to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, the 49-year-old woman was allegedly harassed, punched and hit in the face with a cell phone by one of three 15-year-old girls who made fun of her accent and told her to "go back to (her) own country.”

According to the DA's office, a witness pressed the train’s emergency call button to report the assault at Andrew Station. When MBTA Transit Police responded to the scene, prosecutors said they spoke to witnesses who corroborated the victim’s account, including one witness who described the group of girls “celebrating” after they left the train.

The young women were identified through a photo taken by one of the witnesses, which Transit Police showed to Boston Public School officials to identify the alleged assailants.

Two of the 15-year-olds, from Mattapan and Dorchester, were arraigned last week in juvenile court, and the third girl, also from Dorchester, was arraigned Monday.

All three are charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and civil rights violation causing injury, the DA's office said. All three were released to their parents’ custody with orders to stay away from one another, the victim and witnesses in the case.

Photo credit: Pi.1415926535