A plucky aged girl on her solution to a New 12 months’s Day church service fought again when a violent group of teenybopper women pummeled her throughout a botched theft inside a Brooklyn subway station, cops mentioned.
Linda Rosa, 71 – a retired MTA laptop operation employee who lives in East New York – acquired off a No. 3 practice at Hoyt Avenue simply after 6 p.m. and had simply handed via the turnstile when one of many 4 women tried to seize her purse, she informed The Publish Friday.
“After which I [said to myself], ‘Oh, no, this isn’t going to occur right now,’” Rosa mentioned.
Then, one other teen tried to seize Rosa’s bag too and mentioned: “Oh, you wish to combat?”
Rosa continued holding tight to her purse, which didn’t discourage the younger would-be robbers.
“The primary particular person saved combating,” Rosa mentioned. “She punched me in my face and I’ve my glasses on, and I’ve a lower on my nostril. When she punched me in my face, my glasses flew to the ground.”
“In the meantime the opposite younger girl was nonetheless attempting to distract me to get my pocketbook or go into my purse, to grab one thing out of my purse,” she recalled.
The teenager ended up grabbing a pocket pouch that held Rosa’s ID and medical data, she mentioned.
“I used to be nonetheless wrestling with the primary particular person,” Rosa mentioned. “Then I used to be attempting to kick her in between her legs, however my leg wouldn’t stretch far sufficient, so I consider that’s after I fell. I fell, after which she stomped on me.”
Rosa mentioned she sensed that the hostile teenagers weren’t completed but, so she took motion.
“I acquired an impression in me that she was going to stomp me once more, however she was going to intention in the direction of my head,” she mentioned. “So I acquired up straight away, and with that, I grabbed her braids and twirled them round my proper hand, after which I pulled her down. She had her head down. Then the opposite younger girl mentioned, ‘Let her go.’ And I mentioned, ‘Oh, no, I’m not letting her go.’”
The senior yelled out for somebody to assist her – when she seen that the second teen had tossed her pocket pouch to the bottom and was coming towards her once more.
“So out of nowhere, I grabbed her hair and twisted it round my left hand,” Rosa mentioned. “So I had them each facedown….[like] rams once they’re on the point of combat.”
The opposite women screamed, “Allow them to go! Allow them to go!” however Rosa held on and yelled, “I want help! I want help!”
Moments later, Rosa did let go and began selecting up her belongings off the ground.
The startled teenagers ran up the steps as Rosa informed them she was going to name the cops.
Rosa – who retired from the MTA in 2016 after working for the company for about 42 years – then headed to the close by Brooklyn Tabernacle Church, the place the employees tended to her and referred to as 911.
She was taken to The Brooklyn Hospital Heart for therapy.
Rosa mentioned she is grateful she wasn’t damage worse.
“Thank God they didn’t haven’t any weapons,” she mentioned. “I thank God I didn’t have a coronary heart assault and a stroke and die!”
Her attackers – seen passing via the turnstile in footage launched by the NYPD – have been nonetheless on the free Friday, however Rosa mentioned she is already granting them some grace.
“I forgive them. They have no idea what they do,” Rosa mentioned. “They don’t know what they did. It’s simply youngsters appearing silly.”
The assault got here throughout a violent stretch for town’s transit system that noticed a girl burned to dying, a person shoved in entrance of a practice and a number of stabbings or slashings.
“It might occur to anyone,” Rosa mentioned of the violence. “Now we’re seeing seniors getting attacked. Wherever – it could occur anyplace, any station. You can be strolling down the road. You can be crossing the road.”
