Crime and Courts

NYPD Investigating Subway ‘Transphobic Attack' as Hate Crime: Mayor de Blasio

A transgender woman says she was attacked inside a subway station Friday night

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The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating an alleged late-night subway attack on the C train, Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed Saturday.

Serena Daniari, a transgender woman, detailed the troubling attack in a video posted to Twitter on Friday around 9 p.m. In the video, she speaks through tears from the 155th Street subway station in Harlem.

Daniari said a couple approached her and asked if she was a guy.

"The guy spit in my face. It was so disgusting," Daniari said in the video.

She told detectives the man slapped her and when she pulled out her phone to snap a photo of the couple harassing her, the woman allegedly slapped the phone out of Daniari's hand.

Mayor de Blasio urged anyone who may have seen the alleged assault to contact police.

He also apologized on Twitter for the incident on behalf of all New Yorkers, saying "transgender and non-binary New Yorkers deserve to travel in their city without fear."

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