A Bronx subway worker brutally assaulted on a station platform said Thursday he isn’t sure he’ll be able to return to work.
“Right now, I’m in deep pain,” said Baboo Singh, 74, a subway station agent and 27-year MTA employee. “Sometimes I feel dizzy walking — I’ve got to stop and hold on.”
At least a suspect was busted in the case. Cops arrested alleged attacker Anthony Williams, 30, and charged him with felony assault in the ambush on Singh earlier in September.
TWU Local 100
Baboo Singh after he was attacked on his way to work as an MTA station agent.
Singh was attacked around 9:15 p.m. on Sept. 12 while waiting on the platform at the Nereid Ave. No. 2 and No. 5 station in Wakefield, the Bronx.
He was wearing his MTA uniform at the time of the attack, and was headed to work at the nearby 225th St. station.
“I think I was attacked because I am an MTA worker,” Singh said. “Someone came from behind and pummeled me on my face and head.”
Singh said he didn’t know the man, who attacked him without saying a word.
Williams allegedly came at him from behind and proceeded punch him multiple times, only stopping when a No. 2 train entered the station.
Singhsuffered a cut above his right eye and fractures to his nose and to bones in his face, said a spokesman for Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union.
“I’m outraged, I’m angry, I’m pissed off — our members are attacked on a daily basis,” said Richard Davis, Local 100’s president.
Evan Simko-Bednarski
MTA station agent Baboo Singh, 74, addressed reporters at a press conference outside the Nereid Ave. 2/5 Station in Wakefield, The Bronx.
“We are thankful the NYPD made an arrest,” Davis said. “But we want this guy to remain behind bars. We want to make sure he doesn’t come out and attack anyone else.”
Williams has been arrested 18 times since 2015, police sources told the Daily News. Those cases include a felony assault in Brooklyn in 2020 and a Queens robbery charge in 2018, the sources said.
Assaults on transit workers are on the rise, Singh’s union says. Data compiled by the Transport Workers Union shows there have been 51 assaults on subway workers so far in 2023 — a 70% increase over the 30 assaults that took place over the same period in 2022.
MTA chairman Janno Lieber denounced the attack at an unrelated press conference Thursday, and renewed calls to ban those guilty of assaulting transit workers from the system.
“I am not going to stand by when people are attacking MTA workers who are serving the public and especially station agents who have stepped out of the booths to provide more customer service,” Lieber said.
“That offender needs not to come back into the transit system,” the transit boss continued. “Our station agents should not fear that somebody who attacked another station agent a few weeks or months ago is back in the system.”
“It’s an allegation, it’s a charge, so criminal justice is gonna have to find him guilty, or there’ll be a plea,” Lieber added.
“But if there’s a plea, or if there’s a finding of guilt, I want that guy banned from the system. Period, end.”
With Elizabeth Keogh
