MTA workers ignored beating on New York subway that left man with concussion, lawsuit says

Meter

By kathianne boniello

March 18, 2023 | 12:09

A Brooklyn man claims a deranged stranger knocked his front teeth loose during a random beating on an F train platform in the Village, and transit workers did nothing to intervene, according to a lawsuit.

Bret Mahrer, 29, was minding his business on the northbound train when he stopped at the West 14th Street/6th Avenue station when he noticed a stranger “staring at him” and “muttering something,” according to court documents.

As the doors of the train opened, the man started to leave, but suddenly turned and hit Mahrer in the face while he was inside the train.

“Everything happened in a thousandth of a second. It just hit me real hard,” Mahrer said. “He punched me. No warning.”

The altercation spilled over onto the platform as the man continued to beat Mahrer, he alleged in a negligence lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court against the Transit Authority and the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

“I felt dizzy, I remember looking to the side and a [straphanger] He pulled out his camera phone and I yelled, ‘Is someone going to help me?’” he said. “Nobody helped me”.

The train remained in the station with its doors open until the beating Saturday night, which occurred around 8:15 p.m., stopped and the stranger fled, says Mahrer, who said he did not see any transit workers. during the assault.

He was left “stunned and disoriented on the platform…covered in blood” until two Good Samaritans helped him onto the street and called the police. He was treated for a concussion and had his lip stitched up at Lenox Health Greenwich Village Hospital, only to learn later that he had fractured teeth, Mahrer said in court documents.

There were no cameras on the platform where he was mugged, “although there were cameras on other platforms and throughout the 14th Street station,” Mahrer said in the lawsuit seeking unspecified damages.

There have been no arrests in the assault, police said.

“I feel like the MTA should be a little more responsible,” Mahrer said.

“Through his lawsuit, Bret is trying to force the MTA and NYC Transit to accept some responsibility for people’s safety,” said his attorney, Kenneth F. McCallion.

The MTA declined to comment on the litigation.