A 2-year-old boy was slapped in the face by a violent beggar on a Manhattan subway train – the latest in a recent spike in urban transport violence, police and law enforcement sources said Sunday.
The toddler was sitting on his mother’s lap on a North C train on Douglas Boulevard and West 116th Street in Manhattan shortly after 3 p.m. on Saturday, when a female beggar walked between the doors of the train car and started asking passengers for money , according to police and sources.
“Can you say 6 feet away please?” the boy’s mother asked the beggar, sources told The Post.
The suspect stepped on the mother’s left foot, sources said.
When the mother asked her, “Why did you step on me?” the suspect began to thrust and beat the 2-year-old, sources said.
A witness told police to get the suspect from the mother and child – who suffered minor visible injuries to his face and ear, sources said.
The attacker, described as in his 40s, fled the train when it reached the station, police said.
The injured child was taken to Mount Sinai-Saint Luke’s Hospital by ambulance for treatment, police sources said. He has since been released, sources said.
The suspect was described as a heavyset woman with a neck tattoo and buzzcut who was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, washed-out jeans, boots and a white face mask, sources said.
The incident was just one of a series of troubling recent train crimes, including a gruesome random chop on the A Line earlier this month that killed two people and injured two others.