A woman is wanted after she punched a 4-year-old boy in the chest at a Brooklyn subway station on Friday, allegedly lashing out after the child's parents refused to give her money. The boy was riding a northbound A train with his parents when the confrontation unfolded, and police say he was not hurt, though the suspect remains at large.
According to ABC7 New York, the incident happened at about 11:35 a.m. near the intersection of Euclid and Pitkin avenues in the East New York section of Brooklyn. Police said the woman approached the family and asked for money, and when the parents declined, she punched the boy in the chest.
The child was not injured, police said, but the woman fled the station after the attack. No arrests had been announced as of the report, and no additional information was immediately available.
Description of the Suspect
Police described the woman as Black, in her 40s, with curly black hair and a tattoo on her forehead. She was last seen wearing white slippers and a black T-shirt, per the same account, and investigators have not released any further details on her identity or whereabouts.
The attack adds to a string of recent reports involving confrontations over panhandling on the city's subway system. In a separate case detailed by Patch, a man was accused of punching a woman at another Brooklyn subway station after asking her for a dollar.
Assault Numbers Climbing Across the Transit System
The East New York incident comes amid a broader rise in transit violence this year. NYPD Transit Chief Joseph Gulotta said felony assaults in the city's transit system were up 9% in 2026, according to the New York Daily News. Police had investigated 435 transit assaults through the end of August, compared with 397 reported by the same point in 2025.
Not every category has worsened, though. Random attacks, in which a stranger targets a rider with no apparent provocation, actually fell 8%, from 69 cases in 2025 to 63 this year, according to the same report. Whether Friday's encounter at Euclid and Pitkin avenues fits that pattern has not been addressed by investigators, and police have not said whether the suspect has been identified.
