What to Know
- A medical student and electric cellist with the stage name Eyeglasses was randomly attacked while performing at the Herald Square subway station
- The incident occurred at 5:50 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 13 and it was caught on video
- Police say they are searching for the woman wearing a mustard color jacket, black beanie and red scarf who attacked him
Iain Forrest was passionately performing for evening rush commuters at the Herald Square subway station when a woman came up behind him and smacked him in the back of his head with his water bottle.
Forrest, a medical student and electric cellist with the stage name Eyeglasses, says the random attack happened at exactly 5:50 p.m. on Feb. 13 and it was all caught on video. His assaulter appeared to be leaning on a column at the 34th Street station while looking at her phone when she suddenly put the device in her tote bag, marched behind Forrest, grabbed his metal water bottle and forcefully struck him.
“I just felt in the middle of the performance some terrible collision in the back of my head,” Forrest recalled.
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The “Music Under New York” member said he didn’t know what had caused “a lot of pain” and was disoriented.
Police say they are searching for the woman wearing a mustard color jacket, black beanie and red scarf who attacked him.
“No one in the transit system, including the musicians, should be subjected to violence, and when the NYPD catches up to the person who committed this senseless attack they will be held accountable,” the MTA reacted in a statement.
Local
Tuesday’s incident was the second time in less than a year that Forrest says he has been attacked as a subway performer. The first was in Times Square where someone attempted to rob his instrument.
“I don’t think I can do this anymore,” he announced on his Instagram two days later. “I’m suspending subway performances indefinitely.”
While the MTA doesn’t log specific numbers of assaults on musicians in subway stations, Forrest says he believes tracking those numbers and diverting resources can help prevent future attacks.
“If you talk to any of these musicians, they’ll tell you something similar happened to them. They got assaulted. They got attacked, harassed,” Forrest said.
The musician has been entertaining locals and tourists in subway stations for nearly a decade. He also performed the National Anthem at Madison Square Garden last December. Now, he’s questioning the longevity of his time underground.
“To me, I’m asking myself is it worth it? Is it worth my life? This could’ve been so much worse,” he said.
His attacker quickly fled the station into Macy's following the blow, Forrest said, and NYPD officers were unable to find her. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
