The woman who was kicked down the stairs at a New York City subway station and bashed in the head with a hammer has been identified as 58-year-old Dr Nina Rothschild, a scientist with the city’s Department of Health.
Sickening surveillance video shows a robber kicking her down the steps and bashing her in the head repeatedly with a hammer, fracturing her skull days after Mayor Eric Adams vowed to crack down on violence in the transit system.
Rothschild’s brother, Gerson, is also a scientist in Upper Manhattan at Columbia University and managed to speak with his sister on Friday as she recovers from surgery. She remains critically-ill.
‘From what she told me on the phone she was just walking down the steps to get into the subway on the way home from work when she was attacked by somebody from behind,’ he said to ABC7.
‘She apparently remembers all of that and she kept screaming, ‘stop, stop’ but the person either wouldn’t stop, I don’t remember exactly what she said, but ultimately grabbed the bag with the cellphone and the personal papers and apparently some jewelry and ran off with it.’
Video footage shot outside the station in Queens Plaza, in Long Island City, shows the robber, walking with a cane, approach Rothschild as she carefully walked down the stairs to the subway platform on Thursday at 11:22 pm.
Dr Nina Rothschild, 58, a scientist with New York City’s Department of Health was kicked down the stairs at a subway station in Queens before being bashed in the head with a hammer
The robber kicked Dr Nina Rothschild, 58, down the stairs at the Queens Plaza subway station and proceeded to pull out a hammer and attack her
Dr Rothschild was found lying on the ground, suffering from a fractured skull with lacerations to her head. She was transported to a nearby hospital, where she is in critical condition
The suspect kicked her in the back, attempting to knock her over, but when she managed to stay on her feet and tried to flee, the man pulled out a hammer.
He proceeded to bash her in the head 13 times while she struggled, with the final hit knocking her to the ground.
The suspect then grabbed her purse and fled. No arrest has been made and the man has yet to be identified.
Officers found Dr Rothschild lying on the ground, suffering from a fractured skull with lacerations to her head. She was transported to a nearby hospital, where she is in critical condition.
Dr. Dave Chokshi, health commissioner for the city, called the attack ‘horrific’ in a statement and said the agency’s thoughts were with the woman and her family.
‘Nina has worked tirelessly in service to her fellow New Yorkers and she is truly a public health hero,’ Chokshi said.
‘The Health Department and I will do everything we can to support her in her recovery—and we ask that all New Yorkers keep her and her family in their thoughts while respecting their privacy during this difficult time.’
Dr Rothschild is from a family of academics. Her father, Joseph A. Rothschild, was a longtime professor of history and political science at Columbia University. Her brother, Gerson, is also a scientist in Upper Manhattan at Columbia University
Nina Rothschild’s brother, Gerson, pictured, is also a scientist in Upper Manhattan at Columbia University. He is confident the assailant will be captured
Dr Rothschild is from a family of academics. It is unclear if she is also linked to the famed Rothschild banking dynasty.
Rothschild’s father, Joseph A. Rothschild, was a longtime professor of history and political science at Columbia University until his death in 2000 at the age of 68.
The attack comes one week after Mayor Eric Adams announced his Subway Safety Plan initiative and deployed 1,000 additional officers, as well as teams of health workers, to crack down on rising crime in the subways.
‘I do hope that the homeless outreach program will yield some results of getting the people who need it the most help that they can get, potentially reduce crime,’ Gerson Rothschild said.
Meanwhile, Adams said he is ‘really angry’ that a city employee was attacked while walking to the subway.
‘We need to deal with those who are on our streets right now that are dangerous, that are violent and have a total disregard,’ he said
‘A woman taking the train should not be struck in the head with a hammer, repeatedly,’ Adams said. ‘And for us to believe that dangerous people like that, in some corners, that we need to say because they are in pain, they should inflict pain. I don’t subscribe to that. we need to catch him. He needs to be incarcerated.’
He bashed Dr Nina Rothschild’s head 13 times with the weapon and then stole her purse
The suspect walks out slowly from the subway, with both cane and hammer in hand
Police are investigating the case and on the lookout for this man, who they say attacked the woman on Thursday night
The attack is the latest in a string of stabbings and robberies that have occurred in the past week in New York City’s subway system, which serves more than 3 million people daily
Adams said NYPD officers would be deployed on the A, E, 1, 2, N and R lines to ensure public safety.
Both the E and R trains run through the Queens Plaza Station where Thursday night’s attack occurred. The station is in the eastern-end of Long Island City, an affluent area home to many young professionals and where Amazon considered opening its second headquarters back in 2019.
An MTA worker at the station told the New York Post he was surprised about the attack in the community.
‘Look around, they’ve done a lot with this area, so it’s usually pretty safe,’ he said.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the new Subway Safety Plan initiative on Friday as a way to crackdown on crime and violence in the city’s transit system
Under Adams’ plan, officers and service workers would be part of ‘End of the Line’ teams with officers to make sure the trains are cleared during their final stops.
The health workers would be there to help the mentally ill and guide them to the city’s support services, while the officers are directed to enforce laws against laying down, sleeping, outstretching, littering, drug use and aggressive behavior towards riders.
The plan came after a spate of recent crimes committed by homeless individuals, including a break-dancer who was stabbed by a homeless man last Thursday and Michelle Go’s murder, where the 40-year-old was pushed beneath a train last month by a homeless man with a history of mental illness.
‘Let’s be clear on this, [the homeless] are not dangerous,’ Adams said. ‘The vast majority are not dangerous, but we have to be honest about the number of individuals dealing with mental health crises. They are dangerous to themselves and dangerous to New Yorkers.’
The mayor’s plan received support from Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said the state would deliver 600 new psychiatric beds and another 500 beds at shelters in the city to try and provide help for those currently living in the subways, many of whom suffer from severe mental illness.
‘We will accomplish what new Yorkers deserve, and that is a safe ride on our subway system while also recognizing the very real humanitarian crisis that has been unfolding before our eyes for far too long.’
The city has deployed an additional 1,000 officers to patrol the subway system starting Friday
Thursday’s attack happened at the Queens Plaza Station, which services the E and R lines that were supposed to be enforced better under the Mayor’s plan. An MTA worker at the station said he was shocked to learn about the attack because the area is usual safe
But despite their efforts, crime continues to plague the city’s transit system, which serves more than 3 million people every day.
New York City subway stabbings and slashings have spiked 29 percent in the last last year, with 182 incidents compared to 141 a year before in 2020.
And 2022 is squaring up to be even worse. So far this year there have been 27 subway attacks on passengers – a 35 percent increase on the 20 reported for the same period of 2021.
One of the latest victims, a Trader Joe’s employee named Kevin Young, was repeatedly slashed across the face, hand and behind the ear after accidentally bumping into into a disturbed passenger on February 12.
The incident occurred around 5:45 am at the Union Square subway station on East 14th street as Young tried to step off a southbound Q train on his way to work to begin his 6 am shift.
‘Subway crime is out of control,’ fumed Young, 36, to the New York Post.
‘He’s trying to get on the train and I’m trying to get out and after a shoving match he goes for his blade,’ Young recalled.
‘I tried to defend myself as much as possible. As soon as I held him down, he got his blade and went to work.’
New York City has seen a nearly 50 percent spike in criminal incidents this year when compared to the same span in 2021. Felony assaults have increased by more than 20 percent, while shootings are up by a marked 30 percent
Evelina Rivera, a 30-year-old chef, was struck by a homeless man wielding a metal pole on her way home from her shift on Monday morning
Young required 25 stitches to close his wounds, and underwent surgery at Bellevue Hospital on Thursday to fix some nerve damage in his left middle finger that he sustained during the attack.
‘And I have to get pin plates inserted into my right index finger so the bones could grow back,’ he groaned.
His assailant, who has yet to be identified or arrested as of Saturday, was last seen wearing a black jacket, black jeans, black Adidas bag and eyeglasses, police said.
The attack on Young comes just days after a 39-year-old woman was slashed in the forehead by another woman with a boxcutter while traveling on a 5 train at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue.
On Monday, just hours before Adams’ safety plan was set to go in effect, one man was attacked with a hatchet and a woman had her nose ring crushed by a homeless man wielding a metal pipe.
The first of the brutal attacks on Monday came at around 12.30 a.m. when Kyle Westby, 42, was on his way home from a late dinner out with his girlfriend when he arrived at the Prospect Heights station and saw two men, one of whom asked ‘Why are you staring at me,’ the New York Post reports.
‘I saw him reach into his jacket and pull out a brown object,’ Westby told the Post. ‘He swung at me, and I ran away, so I ran up the stairs and thank God the cops were there.
‘I said ‘Officers, this man swung at me with an ax.’ Immediately, they went down and apprehended him.’
Police report they took Robert Griffith, 58, into custody following the attack, and charged him with attempted assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, saying Griffith also allegedly had a punch dagger and screwdriver.
Hours later, Evelina Rivera, a 30-year-old chef, was struck by a homeless man wielding a metal pole on her way home from her shift.
She was on her way home on a No. 4 train heading to the Bronx at 2.39 a.m. when a homeless man, who had earlier poured honey over himself, asked her and another female passenger: ‘Oh would you guys just shut the f*** up?’
‘We’re like, ‘Anyway,’ and we keep talking, and he’s like ‘I’ll make you shut up,’ she told the Post.
At that point, she said, the man tried to strike the other woman, ‘misses her by a millimeter’ and instead broke the subway window, as the would-be victim used pepper spray to blind him.
Unable to see, Rivera said, the man started swinging wildly and ‘hit me so hard the ball came out of my [septum] piercing. It’s crooked.’
Rivera said she was ‘about to have a panic attack’ following the attack,’ and she and the other woman got off at the next stop to report the incident to police.
But when the cops showed up, the Post reports, they patrolled the subway to look for the suspect, who is described as having facial piercings and was last seen wearing all black, but were unable to find him.
Several other New Yorkers were also attacked in vicious slashings over the weekend, with some subway stops roped off by police as blood stained the walls.
In the aftermath, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said the attacks should not be considered ‘normal.’
‘People who would prey on New Yorkers riding transit should get the message that it’s not going to be tolerated,’ he said in a statement to the New York Times, adding they ‘underscore the urgent need’ for the new safety plan.
A spokesman for the mayor, Fabien Levy, also said that Adams strongly condemned the attacks, noting that they ‘shouldn’t be subject to sweeping generalizations.’
‘We should not conflate such isolated acts of violence on the subway with broad statements about the behavioral and mental health challenges the city is confronting, or the issue of aiding those experiencing homeless that the mayor’s plan directly addresses.’