A 21-year-old Brooklyn woman has been arrested in a rush-hour subway attack on a 41-year-old woman who ended up punched in the face after speaking on her phone as she sat on the train, authorities said Wednesday.
Brianna Rodriguez is charged with assault as a hate crime and assault in the Monday, Aug. 8 morning attack in the Q train station at Flatbush and Seventh avenues.
According to investigators, the victim had boarded the Manhattan-bound Q at Newkirk Avenue, sat down and started talking on her phone. Rodriguez sat beside her and, the NYPD says, "without prior provocation or conversation," stood up and punched the 41-year-old several times in the face.
When the victim asked her, "Why did you hit me?" cops say she reported Rodriguez replying, "I hate Mexicans."
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The train pulled into the Flatbush and Seventh avenues stop at that point and the victim snapped a photo of her attacker before the younger woman got off. The victim refused medical attention for minor injuries when she got off at Atlantic.
Information on a possible attorney for Rodriguez wasn't immediately available.
