Subway Slashing Suspect In Custody, Victim Describes Attack
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The man who allegedly attacked a 71-year-old woman on a the subway Monday morning is now in custody, sources told CBS2.
Carmen Rivera was slashed in the face as she was sitting on the D train pulling into the Broadway-Lafayette Station at around 7 a.m., police said.
"I take that train every morning," Rivera exclusively told CBS2's Valerie Castro Monday. "It was somebody I didn't even know."
Rivera said she didn't expect any trouble before she was attacked, CBS2's Hazel Sanchez reported.
"I guess he had a blade, a small blade," she said.
According to Rivera's sister, Amelia, Rivera initially told her family she cut her face while on the job because she didn't want her family to worry. Rivera, a grandmother and mother of three, makes clothing samples for a living.
"That's her nature. That's her nature," Amelia Rivera said. "That's the way she is. I get angry with her. I say what's the matter with you? Wake up!"
Rivera needed 30 stitches to close the 4-inch cut on her left cheek, but she didn't let the assault stop her from getting on a train again and going back to work on Tuesday.
"I leave this problem to God," Rivera said. "Because he's got to answer to God for everything that he's done."
The attacker is described as a Hispanic man around 25 years old, standing 5' 10" with a thin-to-medium build, according to police. Police said the suspect was wearing a dark jacket, a red hoodie and sweatpants.
