Suspects in Custody after Attacks on Employees

Safety at Work

Brooklyn, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) – Two suspects are in custody after a Metropolitan Transit Authority worker tried to stop them from evading their fares.

The second suspect was arrested last week, while the first suspect was arrested earlier this month for the July 1 attack.

Police said the suspects attacked 51-year-old Marshalee Reid, and MTA employee. According to police reports, one of the suspects jumped over the turnstile without paying the fare. Reid then opened the mezzanine door and asked the suspect to pay their fare. As she was holding the door open, another suspect attempted to pass through the gate without paying.

When Reid tried to intervene, the two suspects approached her and began to punch her multiple times. One of the suspects used a set of keys to hit Reid. Officials said Reid was taken to Brookdale Hospital Medical Center for lacerations to her face and a swollen hand.

Security footage on the day of the attacked showed the two women walking with a child up to the platform at the New Lotts Avenue station. Reid had just helped someone with the fare machine and was helping and elderly rider through the gate.

Her union said that’s when one of the suspects jumped the turnstile.

"Not only jumped the turnstile but then the other person came in and jumped on her because she refused to give them a free ride. Just merely doing her job," Robert Kelley, with Transit Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 said.

"This here is just a senseless crime," Kelley said. "This is merely a station agent doing their job, performing customer service, when she was attacked, unprovoked."

Last week, police arrested Leschea Aldridge, 25, and charged her with attempted assault, assault, theft of services, endangering the welfare of a child, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon. She was arraigned and released on supervised release. Her accomplice, 24-year-old Ayizhae Thomas, was arrested earlier this month. Thomas was charged with assault, acting in a manner injurious to a child, and criminal possession of a weapon and menacing.

Reid said she is afraid to leave her house and that the assault left her with blood dripping down her face.

"The girl was punching me in my face with the keys she had, and she also had a pocketknife," Reid said.

Union leaders said transit crime is up 71.4 percent in the area where Reid works.

"At the time of this assault, there was no police to be found. Mezzanine, platform, nowhere in sight. I can tell you today every one of our members is pissed off about this," Kelley said.

TWA leaders called on the MTA Chairman and the mayor to send MTA police and NYPD transit cops into high-crime stations.

"How are you going to get people to take these jobs? Who would you recommend for a job like this if every day you can be punched in the face?" TWU local 100 President John Chiarello said.

The union leaders also want the city’s district attorneys to prosecute transit crimes.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he would like to see as many police as possible in the MTA system. Adams said there needs to be a recriminalization of fare evasion.

"Matter of fact one person said - nobody pays. So, when we enforce the laws, we're preventing chaos and disorder and we need our lawmakers to be partners with us because every day people are being impacted," Adams said. “There was a big push back from our lawmakers to decriminalize. That’s wrong. It starts at the gate. Look at how much we had to fix. Look at bail reform, cannabis laws, mental health issues, raise the age, less is more, discovery. We are on the ground policing while legislative decisions impact real New Yorkers.”

When Thomas was arrested earlier this month, NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said it was up to the courts to determine what justice looks like and that the transit workers and unions “will be watching closely”

Union leaders said transit workers deserve a safe place to work.

“How would you feel if at any given time if you were driving a bus or working in a fare area and somebody could just come up and punch you in the face or slash your face,” John Chiarello, president of TWU, said during a press conference Tuesday. “Should anyone have to live like that? I think not.”

According to the MTA, more that 10 attacks on transit workers were reported between January and March of this year. That number doesn’t include an attack in June where an MTA subway workers was slashed in the face. 

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