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."
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.
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