11-Year-Old Boy Wants To Thank Hero Teacher Who Saved Him During Train Assault
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An 11-year-old boy is still shaken after he was assaulted on the 4 train while he was on his way home from school.
CBS2's Ali Bauman reports Zion Cuvas was heading home from school on Oct. 5 when police said he was assaulted on the train near Union Square by a total stranger. The suspect dragged Zion in between the subway cars.
As 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported, Zion rides the train every day from school in Manhattan to his home in East New York.
"I got on the train and then they started play fighting, and then I giggled a little bit, and then the guy said 'you saw him punch me' and then I was like yeah," he said.
That's when he said he was grabbed.
"He picked me up by my arms like this," described Zion.
He was standing inside the train on his way home to Brooklyn after school around 3:20 when he said the man picked him up, carried him between the cars and dangled him in the air.
"I was just staying still just in case the train rattled," said Zion. "So like if the train rattled, I would have fallen off."
Zion said his head hit the wall as the man pushed him through to the next car, but that's when a 26-year-old school teacher came to his rescue.
"When he banged me against the door she took me," explained Zion. "She said, 'Are you OK?'"
Zion said the mysterious woman kept him calm while his attacker – described as about 6-foot-tall and 30 years old – stayed in the car over. At the next stop, Union Square, the teacher brought Zion to a nearby precinct.
"I was just in shock, I couldn't even think," he said. "She told me to stay calm, don't be scared, and stuff because my arms really hurt."
Zion's dad picked him up at the precinct and now the young boy is hoping to run into his hero again.
"I'd say thank you and hug her," said Zion.
He's still taking the same train home from school, but now Zion tries to stick near a conductor.
Police believe the suspect may have been drinking on the train before the assault.
