New York City

NYPD: Two Women Arrested for Bizarre Subway Beating of Mom Over Costume Question

What to Know

  • Women arrested in connection to beating a mother on a subway after her young son asked her why the child of another straphanger had costume
  • Chaena Frazier, 30, and Sytobia Agbonlahor. 27, both of Queens, turned themselves in and are facing numerous charges
  • The violence broke out on the E train in Queens Nov. 2 around 1:30 p.m., police say

Two women have been arrested in connection to beating a mother on a subway after her young son asked her why the child of another straphanger was wearing a costume, police announced Friday.

Chaena Frazier, 30, and Sytobia Agbonlahor, 27, both of Queens are were arrested and facing numerous charges. 

Frazier was charged with criminal obstruction of breathing and acting in a manner that causes injury to a child younger than 17 years old. Agbonlahor was charged with assault in the second degree, harrassment in the second degree and acting in a manner that causes injury to a child younger than 17 years old.

Both women surrendered to authorities, according to sources, who say they also have extensive records. Frazier was arrested four times in the past, while Agbonlahor was arrested twice before, sources say.

Attorney information for the women was not immediately known.

The violence broke out on the E train in Queens Nov. 2 around 1:30 p.m., when the victim’s 8-year-old son turned to her and asked why another rider's child was wearing a costume on the train, according to the NYPD.

The child in the costume was accompanied by two women at the time. Cops say the 8-year-old's comment apparently upset them. One of the women put the 50-year-old mother in a chokehold while the other punched her in the face and hit her over the head with a cellphone, authorities say.

In an exlusive interview with NBC 4 New York, Margaret Nielson, 50, says he was was on an E train at 74th Street and Roosevelt Avenue with her son two days after Halloween when her son noticed another child wearing a costume, she told NBC 4 New York in an exclusive interview.

The costume caught her son's eye because he enjoys wearing costumes and often dresses up as different superheroes, Nielson said.

"... [H]e looked over and he saw a little boy about six wearing a bumblebee costume," Nielson said. "To see somebody his age wearing stuff that he wears, and especially out on the train... he thought that was the coolest thing."

Police say the two women with the bumblebee costume-clad child were upset by Nielson's son's comment.

"She got up, and she was screaming at me, screaming at me," Nielson recalled. "She started cursing at me, telling me to tell my kid to show some respect, and have some respect."

"I was like, 'He wasn't speaking to you, he was speaking to me. And it was an innocent comment from an 8-year-old kid,'" Nielson said.

That's when one of the women attacked Nielson, she recalled.

"There were about one hundred people on the train, and [she] smacked me so hard that my feet lifted off the floor," she said.

After the woman hit her, Nielson clung to her son to protect him — at which point one of the women hit her in the face with a cell phone, she said.

Another woman then put her in a chokehold, authorities said.

Nielson's fellow passengers pulled the woman off of her and formed a shield to prevent any further attacks, she said.

Nielson thanked the passengers who protected her from the attack.

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