Man punches deaf commuter in New York subway days after punching another woman

Attack was unprovoked, and allegedly the second against female victims in a week

New York subway (Niyi Fote/via ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)

A 59-year-old deaf woman was rescued from the tracks of New York’s subway after she was assaulted at the weekend, police have said.

The woman was attacked at Union Square’s 4/5/6 station on Sunday morning. The incident was confirmed by the New York Police Department in a statement to The Independent.

Vladimir Pierre, 41, was arrested shortly after the incident, following accusations of another attack against a woman in New York last week, according to the New York Post,

The 59-year-old victim was rescued from subway tracks after falling in the assault, according to the report. She has been identified as Xingjuan Zhou.

Ms Zhou told the Post that she was deaf, and that a man had pushed her, and caused her to hurt her head. She was treated for facial injuries at a local hospital on Sunday, police have said. She is in a stable condition.

Mr Pierre is accused of being involved in an attack last week against another woman, Crystal Porter, the Post reported,

She told the outlet on Sunday that Mr Pierre “[does not] want to fight men, he just wants to fight women”.

“I don’t even know him,’’ said Ms Porter, a 30-year-old mother of two. “He was coming down the stairs. He was yelling, but I don’t even think he was talking to me. He came down the stairs, and he just punched me.”

According to the Post, the man who attacked her told the mother “I’m gonna kill you”, and then punched her. He was not held on bail, despite being accused of a similar incident in April.

He has been charged with assault and reckless abandonment, according to reports.

The incident was also among more than 4,000 attacks against Asian-Americans recorded by the Stop AAPI Hate coalition in the first half of this year.