Advertisement

Subway rider makes citizen's arrest after filming woman hurling kicks and racial slurs at Asian commuter

A white woman from Brooklyn has been arrested after video footage captured her assaulting and hurling racial slurs at subway riders during their morning commute.

In the viral video, which has over 11m views, features a woman whom police identified as Anna Lushchinskaya, 40, kicking and hitting Michelle Tung, 24, with her keys and umbrella on Manhattan-bound D train. Ms Lushchinskaya, a lawyer with a law firm in Sheepshead Bay, is heard screaming “f*** off” repeatedly, and is seen hitting and kicking other subway riders attempting to stop her from hitting the Ms Tung.

The passengers on the train, who are trying to break up the quarrel, can be heard telling Ms Lushchinskaya to “chill out,” and another shouts, “she’s not even fighting you back”.

The New York Police Department said the argument began after Ms Lushchinskaya bumped into Ms Tung on the train. It escalated into a physical altercation after Ms Lushchinskaya spat on Ms Tung and used an anti-Asian slur.

Genesis Tolentino, who was on that train that morning, told BuzzFeed News that the train was packed and Ms Lushchinskaya’s behaviour ended up delaying the passengers commute.

“It’s Tuesday morning. Everyone wants to get to work. I know I wanted to get to work, and at that point [the incident] delayed everyone,” Ms Tolentino said. “You’re getting mad over the train being packed. Just brush it off and go about your day.”

The video footage of the incident show other commuters frustrated with Ms Lushchinskaya, one of them is heard saying “you are a disgrace to all white people.”

The incident occurred around Sunset Park, a neighbourhood in Brooklyn with a considerable Asian population, Ms Tolentino said.

“When you bring up race, that just changes everything. And it upset me,” she added. “To me, there’s only one race and that’s the human race, and you should be more accepting of it.”

Other video footage shows Ms Lushchinskaya hurling racist taunts at another passenger, identified as Juan Ayala, who confronted the woman about her attack on Ms Tung.

“What are you, her attorney? You piece of shit, ****ing Mohamed Atta,” Ms Lushchinskaya said, referencing one of the 9/11 hijackers.

“What?, I’m Dominican,” the man retorted.

Ms Lushchinskaya then hits Mr Ayala’s phone out of his hand. Mr Ayala then tackles Ms Lushchinskaya to the ground and restrained her, until the NYPD arrived.

The 40-year-old Brooklyn woman was charged with menacing in the second degree, criminal possession of a weapon, attempted assault, menacing, and harassment.

Ms Tung received “scratches to [her] face and hands and caused [her] to fear imminent physical injury and to become alarmed and annoyed,” the criminal complaint from Brooklyn’s district attorney office read.

The 24-year-old woman of Asian descent said she was thankful for one other Asian commuter who physically defended her.

“I’m lucky that she didn’t’t have anything like weapons on her — like knife, gun — because it could have got a lot worse,” Ms Tung told ABC 7 NY. “I’m lucky that people were on the train who were helping me, especially the first Asian guy who stood in front of me right away because he wasn’t’t recording. He just stood in front of me to help me, because I know other people were recording, but their recording didn’t do anything until later on when it escalated.”

Ms Lushchinskaya has a history of disturbing behaviour on the New York City subway. In June, the 40-year-old attorney unleashed pepper spray in a train car full of people. “I just started coughing out of nowhere,” John Tanios told the New York Daily News. “I thought maybe this was a terrorist attack. Everyone was coughing.”

Mr Ayala and Ms Lushchinskaya’s lawyer did not yet respond to requests for comment.

Ms Tung could not be reached for comment.