CBS2 Exclusive: Mother, Daughter Shaken By Unprovoked Lower East Side Subway Attack
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A 9-year-old girl and her mother were attacked by a stranger -- the unprovoked assault took place inside a subway station on the Lower East Side.
Speaking exclusively with CBS2's Hazel Sanchez, the still shaken-up Ayanara Rivera said on Wednesday morning, 34-year-old Latrice Jasper attacked her and her 9-year-old daughter for no reason at all.
"We were going by the tollbooth and she hit my daughter. She swung and she hit my daughter, and that's when we got into an altercation," she said.
Rivera said she was with her daughter and 20 other children at the subway station on Delancey and Essex heading out for a field trip when Jasper hit her daughter and then punched her in the head.
A good Samaritan held onto Jasper at the train station until police arrived. She's no stranger to law enforcement with 32 arrests for drugs, prostitution, and assault. Jasper also has a history of mental illness. Police said she is bi-polar, suffers from depression, and hears voices.
Jasper lives in the same homeless shelter as Melanie Liverpool -- arrested earlier this week for pushing Connie Watton onto a Times Square subway track in what proved to be a fatal incident, police said. Authorities said Liverpool also suffers from mental illness.
"Not everybody that comes out of the shelter has mental health issues, but there are some that do. We just want to bring up awareness to the community that, just keep an eye out," Rivera said.
Rivera said she kept her daughter home from school on Thursday, and she will be getting counseling when she returns.
"Yesterday she was just crying, she was just very upset as to why somebody would do something like this to her," River said.
She said her daughter is afraid to ride the subway again, but said her family has no other choice.
Jasper has been charged with two counts of assault, two counts of harassment, and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
