Victim of gruesome subway attack furious at mayor Adams for going on trip while NYC suffers

A New York City mother of five who was beaten bloody by a convicted murderer out on parole earlier this month at a Queens subway platform is speaking out about NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ broken promises and misplaced priorities.

“I remember hearing that they would have cops posted on platforms, riding the trains, cops down in a subway. Mayor Adams said especially in the subway,” Elizabeth Gomes said in an interview this week with the New York Post.

“The mayor said we would have much more cops in the subway and the cops specifically would be patrolling the subways because that’s where the worst of the crimes we are having, especially at places like Howard Beach station. There was no one. Why no protection there?”

She added, “Obviously, the government or nobody is doing anything for us. When we’re out there, we’re by ourselves. We’re fighting these battles by ourselves, and what they do, they go try to help other countries that have nothing to do with what we’re going through in our own place.”

Asked by the Post to clarify what she meant by “they,” she said the “mayor” and “governor.”

“Like Eric Adams, our mayor, going to Puerto Rico,” she explained.

The mayor took a trip to Puerto Rico over the weekend to offer the island support amid Hurricane Ian.

As noted by Gomes, the mayor seems to be more interested in helping Puerto Ricans than in helping New Yorkers.

The same applies to illegal aliens. Adams has demonstrated more willingness to address their needs and concerns versus the needs and concerns of the city’s citizens and specifically its homeless population.

According to Post columnist Nicole Gelinas, Gomes is one of many recent NYC victims.

“This month, a Belgian woman suffered facial injury when a group of men randomly slashed her on subway stairs in Chelsea. Also this month, a lost tourist was raped on a Manhattan subway platform. In August, an attacker repeatedly punched an 80-year-old woman on an Upper East Side train. The same month, a 22-year-old woman made a video about being slapped in the face on an Upper West Side train,” she writes.

“In June, a woman suffered a broken bone when an assailant pushed her to Bronx subway tracks. In February, a city worker, Nina Rothschild, suffered a skull fracture when a suspect repeatedly hit her with a hammer to steal her purse. Also in February, an unnamed woman was smeared with feces in a Bronx subway station when she, too, tried to avoid a harasser who had targeted her. Last November, Thai model Bew Jirajariyawetch was sexually assaulted and left unconscious after a Herald Square subway-platform mugging.”

The most recent attack occurred on Sept. 20th,  when, after Gomes got off a subway train, suspect Waheed Foster chased after her, threw her into a wall, and repeatedly kicked her head and body.

It turned out Foster is a convicted murderer who brutally beat his grandmother to death in the mid-1990s. After getting out of lockup, he stabbed his sister with a screwdriver in 2010. While being treated at a psychiatric center following the stabbing, he attacked three workers.

“This guy kill[ed] his grandmother at 14 years old. He injured so many people. Why is he on the street? That’s what we trying to find out. It’s crazy — she’s [his wife] going to lose her sight if she doesn’t get some help real soon,” Gomes’ husband, Clement Tucker, said to the Post in a separate interview.

Both he and his wife say that after the attack by Foster, Gomes wandered the station looking for help but was unable to find anyone, not even subway workers, who apparently had been on break at the time.

“I was very surprised. They’re normally there. There’s always some sort of protection at Howard Beach station. I’m used to seeing Port Authority people there. I’m used to seeing, yes, [Port Authority cops] is there,” she recalled.

“There was no security in the booth. There was no cops. The person who should have been in the booth was in the bathroom. They came out 20 minutes after she was attacked. She was walking around, and there was no one there to help her,” her husband added.

It doesn’t help that, even when the cops are present to apprehend bad guys on the subway, said bad guys wind up back on the streets in no time.

“[M]ost people the police arrest are immediately released — forcing more work for less result. That includes the latest attacker, Foster, who was released on no bail twice for “minor” above-ground infractions in August despite a long violent history, including killing his grandmother (!) and attacking his sister,” according to Gelinas.

Meanwhile, victims like Gomes are stuck living forever traumatized lives.

“I don’t even want to take the train. You know, I love my job so much, and part of me, like, doesn’t want to go back because I’m scared. My life has changed. Everything changed,” the mother of five lamented to the Post.

Vivek Saxena

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles