Noreen Mallory suffered a broken eye socket after being assaulted on the job as a subway station agent.
Photo by Ben Brachfeld
An MTA station agent recounted on Tuesday the agonizing moments when she was assaulted last week while simply doing her job, the victim of what her union leader described as a “new form of terrorism against public servants.”
Noreen Mallory, 58, was making the rounds at the Wall Street stop on the 4/5 line last Tuesday morning when she peered underneath a bench and saw what appeared to be a blanket, only to soon discover that there was a man underneath it, she told reporters on Feb. 20 at Transport Workers Union Local 100’s union hall in Downtown Brooklyn.
“I was terrified of this guy from the moment he revealed himself,” Mallory said. “He was angry, and I feared him from the moment he presented himself.”
The man started mumbling and waving his finger, and when he didn’t respond to her asking if he was okay, she started walking away but the man followed her down the platform, yelling at her as she walked backwards while a 4 train entered the station. He ultimately punched her several times, but the attack was thwarted from getting worse as several straphangers getting off the train, as well as the train conductor, came to her aid and restrained the man. One of the good samaritans also was punched in the face during the ordeal.
Police shortly thereafter cuffed the alleged perpetrator, Abdellahi Mohammad, and charged him with two counts of second-degree assault. The 35-year-old South Africa native is being held on Rikers Island on either $20,000 bail or $50,000 bond, according to the Department of Correction.
Mallory sustained a broken eye socket and will be off the job for some time. She said she had never faced physical assault before in her nearly 9 years on the job as a station agent, but noted she has felt more scared on duty since she and 2,200 other station agents were ordered to leave the token booths and take…
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