A mugger bludgeoned a 57-year-old “hero’’ city health worker with a hammer late Thursday in a Queens subway station — where cops had already stepped up patrols amid a spike in underground crime.
The horrifying assault at the Queens Plaza E, M and R station was caught on chilling video and one of at least three random transit attacks in the city within a few hours.
“A woman taking the train should not be struck in the head with a hammer,” Mayor Eric Adams railed Friday as victim Nina Rothschild lay critically wounded in a hospital.
“We need to catch him. He needs to be incarcerated,” Hizzoner said of the still-on-the-lam suspect. “And whomever is causing violence on our streets and in our subways, while we give them the emotional help they need, we need to get them off the streets.”
Rothschild of Queens was on her way home from work as a research scientist with the Health Department around 11:20 p.m. when her male attacker crept up behind her and kicked her, apparently trying to make her fall, as she was walking down the station’s stairs, according to cops and the footage.
Rothschild appeared to stumble but continued to make her way down the stairs, the video shows.
The attacker, who had a cane on him, then pulled out a hammer and struck Rothschild several times on the head. He also tried to grab her bag before dealing another set of brutal blows, the clip shows.
He finally snatched her pocketbook – which contained two cellphones, debit cards, credit cards and an unknown amount of money – as his victim helplessly yelled, ”Stop!” and ran back up the stairs, according to the footage and sources. He fled south on Queens Plaza South, cops said.
Rothschild was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center in critical condition with a fractured skull and bleeding to her brain, according to cops and sources.
Police said they believe the attacker honed in on Rothschild on the street as she looked in the window of a storefront before heading down into the subway station.
“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,” said her brother, Gerson Rothschild, a scientist at Columbia University, to ABC-TV.
“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,” he said.
City Health Department Commissioner Dave Chokshi said in a statement, “Our thoughts are with Nina and her family following this horrific incident.
“Nina has worked tirelessly in service to her fellow New Yorkers and she is truly a public health hero,” he 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.”
Adams seethed, “People want to lean into the long-term plan of… not allowing the feeders of violence to happen — which is important, and I talk about it all the time.
“But darn it, we need to deal with those that are on our streets right now that are dangerous, that are violent and have a total disregard – and I’m not going to surrender that.”
Adams unveiled a new subway safety plan last week that called for roving groups of outreach workers and cops to better crack down on rule-breakers and people living in stations and on trains.
Police officials pleaded with the public during a Friday afternoon press conference to help catch the woman’s attacker.
Transit Chief James Wilcox said the subway station was one of those the NYPD had already added more of its own patrols to as part of a subway police plan rolled out last month.
“We are desperately working very hard to increase the uniform presence throughout the system, on the train, on the bus along the mezzanines, on the stairs, the chief said.
Still, the chief would not provide a figure or answer whether the added patrols were on duty at the time of the random attack.
Nina Rothschild’s neighbor, Marlina Smith, 57, called her “a nice person” who goes “about her business.
“It’s a shame,” she said. “They need to catch [Rothschild’s attacker] and put them under the jail.”
Another neighbor who only gave her first name, Martha, said she would often chat with Rothschild in the building.
“She works really hard. And I know that because she comes home really late,” Martha said. “She’s a woman who knows who she is, comfortable in her own skin.
“She’s just a nice person who spends a lot of time in the city,” the neighbor added. “And [she] is always willing, you know, to go and … ride the trains.”
“I think it’s time to leave this city, like a lot of other people,” she said.
Additional reporting by Catalina Gonella
