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Suspect Charged In 2 Brooklyn Hammer Attacks

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The man suspected of attacking at least three people with a hammer in subway stations was charged with robbery Monday night in two of the attacks.

Anthony Coward, 28, was charged in the attack on 32-year-old Richianand Brijanand of Ozone Park. Police believe Coward attacked Brijanand with a hammer and robbed him as he tried to buy a Metro Card at the Fulton Street and Rockaway Avenue station in Bedford-Stuyvesant last Wednesday.

Brijanand exclusively told CBS 2's John Slattery he was lucky the hammer blow to his head wasn't more serious.

"I went up to the machine trying to make my purchase, and all of a sudden he just hit me right in the head -- boom," Brijanand said, adding that he did not see it coming.

Brijanand said it was then that he got a look at the attacker.

Brijanand said as the thief took $140 from his wallet, he was able to get a good look at the man and his hammer.

Police believe two earlier incidents – one in a residential neighborhood in Queens, the other in the same Brooklyn subway station - were also carried out by Coward.

Around 7 a.m. March 5, a 26-year-old pregnant woman was hit from behind in the head with a hammer at 138-49 Pershing Crescent in Briarwood, Queens. Her handbag was stolen, and she was taken to Jamaica Hospital Center, police said.

On May 4, a 23-year-old man was knocked to the ground and beaten with a hammer, again at the Rockaway Avenue A and C train station in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The suspect took the man's wallet, police said.

Coward has been charged in the earlier Brooklyn hammer attack, but no charges have been filed in the Queens incident, police said.

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