A passenger allegedly punched a 53-year-old woman on a train in Long Beach, California, on Wednesday.
The woman, who did not share her name due to safety concerns, said she and her male friend took a seat on the train in front of a man, after which two women with a dog boarded the train, ABC 7 Los Angeles reported.
53-year-old woman says she was attacked, punched by another passenger on Metro train in Long Beach: “I thought I was going to die” https://t.co/737jsCqG3s
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) May 22, 2023
“My friend, he was afraid that one of [the women] would fall so he stretched out his hand to try to help the woman in case she fell. And I told him that did not look good. I was like ‘take your hand off because you’re a man and she’s a woman. Don’t do that,'” the victim said, according to the outlet. (Frightening Video Shows Suspect Pushing Woman Onto Subway Tracks As Train Pulls Into Station)
The man sitting behind them then started screaming, addressing her as “you Asian woman,” which sparked an argument in which one of the women then intervened, the outlet reported.
The victim claimed that the woman hurled racial slurs at her and started repeatedly punching her face before her friend stepped in to help, according to ABC 7 Los Angeles.
An eye witness, Twila Mahone, called the police and tried to get the conductor to stop the train, KESQ reported.
“It was a brutal attack. A very, very brutal attack that should never happen,” Mahone said, according to the outlet.
All the suspects reportedly fled the scene before police arrived.
The victim claims that she rarely takes the train, but after what she went through, she says she may never take one again, ABC 7 Los Angeles reported.