Makeshift bed inside the NYC Subway.
Photo: Andrés Correa Guatarasma / Courtesy
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William “Billy” Torres was arrested and charged with biting and suffocating a Good Samaritan who tried to prevent him from harassing a passenger on the New York Subway.
Torres was charged Sunday with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and threat in the attack on a line D train at the Columbus Circle station at 5 p.m. Saturday.
The weapon charge was for a box cutter that he allegedly used to threaten someone during the underground chaos, according to police. The 20-year-old Good Samaritan who intervened was treated in a hospital for his injuries.
Under the controversial penal reform, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge James Burke released Torres on his own recognizance Sunday, despite prosecutors’ request that he remain under supervision. The attack, which occurred only a day after four people were stabbed and one was hit at three Manhattan stations within a 12-minute interval on Friday.
When New York Post spoke with Torres (44) after his release, he claimed he was “defending himself.” “They tried to rob me. They were trying to take off my jewelry, my headphones, ”she said. “I was minding my own business.”
Torres’ background sheet includes a 2010 raid for allegedly assaulting a neighbor that ended up obtaining a protection order against him, police sources said.
Torres’ current address is Kenmore Hall at 145 East 23rd Street in Gramercy, a former hotel now offering permanent low-income housing outside of city shelters or with special needs.
He is “known throughout the neighborhood as problematic,” said his roommate Richard Feldman, 60, calling him “Loud and crazy.”
“I try to mind my own business and stay away from him, but it’s hard not to notice because he often causes a scene or gets into an argument or makes a lot of noise early in the morning,” Feldman complained.
In the meantime, NYC Metro resumed its 24-hour service yesterday, amid a surge in violence and a new announcement of a greater police presence.
This year there have been various homicides Y natural deaths in the New York subway, in addition to robberies and incidents of violence, some more serious than others. While overall crime on the Metro, including four of the seven most serious categories, has decreased, felony assaults have increased in 2021. The violence prompted New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, to claim this month that the subway was not safe for children.
The Metro registered 2.32 serious crimes –including homicides– per million passengers in March 2021, down from 2.65 the previous month, NYPD statistics show. But both figures are significantly higher than the 1.47 crimes per million users (those who pay for the service) during the year 2019, prior to the pandemic.
Violence and NYC’s “mental health crises” are wreaking havoc on the transportation system, denounced the interim president of transit, Sarah Feinberg, in a letter sent in January to Mayor Bill de Blasio. In February, the city added 644 police officers to the Metro, but an MTA poll in April found that less than half of the passengers (45%) had noticed the additional officers.
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