Man Gets 12 Years Prison In Brooklyn Subway Hammer Attacks
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Authorities say a mugger who hit two subway riders on the head with a hammer will spend 12 years in prison.
According to authorities, Anthony Coward attacked Richianand Brijanand, of Ozone Park, 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 in May 2014.
Brijanand said Coward took $140 from his wallet, and exclusively told CBS2 he was lucky the hammer blow to his head wasn't more serious.
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson says Coward was sentenced Monday.
Coward was also charged in connection to a similar attack, when a 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, also in May 2014. The suspect took the man's wallet along with $58, police said.
Prosecutors say Coward continued to hit one victim after he fell to the ground.
He pleaded guilty on Jan. 25 to two counts of first-degree robbery.
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