NYC Transit President Visits Subway Cleaner Who Was Attacked: MTA

NEW YORK CITY — New York City Transit President Richard Davey was at NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi Saturday in the Bronx visiting a subway cleaner who was attacked on Thursday while trying to identify a suspect in a harassment claim for a straphanger, according to the MTA.

Davey wished Anthony Nelson, the victim, a swift recovery and urged the Bronx District Attorney Darcel Denise Clark to prosecute the suspect, Alexander Wright, to the fullest extent of the law, in a statement he issued.

“Anthony has been a model employee … [and] was viciously attacked while attempting to help fellow New Yorkers who were being harassed by an emotionally disturbed person outside Pelham Park Station,” Davey said. “Someone with dozens of priors should not be free to harass subway riders and brutally attack the employees who make this city move. This reprehensible conduct has to end now.”

On the morning of Aug. 11, Nelson was working at the MTA’s Pelham Bay Park 6-train station when a customer approached him and said that a man was harassing members of the public, an NYPD spokesman told Patch Saturday.

“The cleaner exited the subway to ascertain a description of the suspect to give to the police,” the spokesman said about Nelson, who was near 32-87 Westchester Avenue. “While the cleaner was observing the male, the suspect approached the cleaner and punched him in the head.”

Nelson tried to remove the suspect off of him, but Wright threw him to the ground injuring his shoulder, said the spokesman. Officers responded to the scene and arrested Wright and EMS sent the MTA worker to Jacobi Hospital.

Wright, who is from Randall’s Island, was charged with two counts of assault and harassment, the NYPD spokesman added.

TWU Local 100, a transit union, said that Nelson and fellow transit worker Douglas Scott, both held onto Wright so that the police could nab him.

The attack left the subway cleaner with a broken nose and collarbone, which he had to undergo surgery for on Friday, the union added.

Nelson’s mother, Lisa Nelson, was upset to find out that the suspect was sent to the same hospital as her son for a psychiatric evaluation, according to the union.

Nelson told the MTA in a statement that he could not turn a blind eye when someone was in need.

“We need to be considerate to fellow New Yorkers," Nelson said. "I would do it again.”