Crime & Safety
Brooklyn Subway Hammer Attacker Gets 12 Years
Anthony Coward ambushed riders from behind, "smashing them over their heads with a hammer and running off with their money," the DA says.
BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — More than one-and-a-half years after police arrested 30-year-old Bed-Stuy resident Anthony Coward for allegedly waging two bloody and brutal attacks against Brooklyn subway passengers, famously using a hammer as his weapon, Coward was dealt his prison sentence Monday.
A Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge sentenced Coward to 12 years behind bars and five years of “post-release supervision,” according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
The sentence comes after Coward entered a guilty plea on Jan. 25 to two counts of first-degree robbery.
A spokesman for the DA’s Office explained via email that Coward was jailed for robbery, not assault, because the two counts of first-degree robbery against him were more severe than the two counts of second-degree assault.
Here’s how he carried out his two attacks at the Rockaway Avenue station on the eastern edge of Bed-Stuy, according to the DA:
On May 4, 2014, at approximately 11 a.m., Cory Healy was purchasing a MetroCard from a vending machine when he was approached from behind and hit on the side of the head with a hammer by the defendant. The victim fell to the ground and the defendant demanded his property and continued to strike him with the hammer. The defendant then fled with the victim’s wallet, MetroCard, debit card and $58 in cash.
On May 7, 2014, at approximately 9:20 a.m., Brijanand Rishianand was purchasing a MetroCard when he was hit in the side of the head with a hammer by the defendant. The victim, bleeding, gave the defendant $140 and the defendant fled.
Coward is still facing charges for two similar hammer attacks in Queens and the Bronx. However, the Brooklyn DA is the first to hand down prison time.
“In order for our city to be a place of law and order, people must be able to enter our subways without fear of being violently attacked,” Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson said Monday. “This defendant caused such fear by ambushing subway riders from behind, smashing them over their heads with a hammer and running off with their money.”
“Without question,” the DA said, “he now deserves to spend many years locked up in prison due to the extremely violent nature of his attacks.”
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