A disturbing incident occurred in the New York City subway system on Sunday when a homeless man on parole for attempted murder assaulted a woman in an unprovoked attack. The suspect, identified as 42-year-old Rolan Reid, approached a woman at the 14th Street B/D/F station and asked her to swipe him in with her MetroCard. When she refused, Reid struck her with a metal rod and punched her in the arm, causing a laceration.
The victim, a 28-year-old woman, was taken to Bellevue Hospital where she was listed in stable condition. Transit District Two officers from the Sixth Precinct arrested Reid at the station. He was charged with assault, possession of a forged instrument, and criminal possession of a weapon. Reid was on parole until March 2028 for a previous subway assault that was designated as a hate crime.
In the previous incident on June 5, 2015, Reid shoved a transgender woman onto the subway tracks at the Bleecker/Lafayette Street station. He threw a plastic bottle at her and hurled anti-transgender comments as she struggled to climb out. Security footage captured Reid rummaging in a trash can just moments before the attack. The victim was rescued by other riders and treated for injuries at Bellevue Hospital.
Reid has a history of 20 other arrests, many of which were transit-related offenses. In a separate subway crime on the same day, three teens robbed a 14-year-old on the staircase of a Brooklyn subway station. Despite these incidents, overall subway crime has decreased to the second-lowest level in 27 years, according to NYPD statistics released in April.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch attributed the drop in subway crime to increased NYPD patrols on platforms and trains. She highlighted the record-breaking reductions in crime and violence, including the lowest number of shooting incidents in history and zero murders in the transit system. The precision policing strategies implemented by the NYPD have made New York City the safest big city in the nation.
