'Grabbing my hair:' Women recount violent attack on F train
NEW YORK (PIX11) – Retired doctor Sue Young, her husband and their twin 11-year-old daughters were riding a southbound F train near the West 4th Street station Thursday night when three women got into a dispute with the family, according to police.
Cellphone video released by police shows the incident escalated into a brawl after a bystander, Joanna Lin, started recording the incident.
"The girl in the white T-shirt. She started grabbing my hair. We were grabbing each other. I buried my face to block at my daughters, saw them pin me to the ground and that’s why I have all the bruises," Young said.
Police said one of the women made an anti-ethnic remark.
Lin also claimed she was hit in the head three times by one of the women during the incident.
"When I started to film, one of the teens decked me in the head I know martial arts, so I knew how to deflect to take the blow and I called 911," Lin said.
Young told PIX11 News she wants to thank the bystanders in the subway car who formed a human shield to protect her family from the attacks.
Once the train pulled into the Broadway-Lafayette Street station, police said the three women fled. Both Lin and Young said they hope the women are caught and can get help.
"I want them to be caught, but I don’t want this to ruin their life so they can’t get a job," Young said.
"I really hope that whatever makes them that angry; they can get help for it," Lin said.