A 42-year-old woman was napping aboard a Brooklyn subway train around 2 a.m. Friday when she awoke to a horrifying sight: A male passenger masturbating in front of her, police told the New York Post.
As you might expect, the woman screamed. But the perp — instead of running off — pepper-sprayed the victim in her face, the paper said.
To make matters worse, the suspect slashed the woman's hand with a folding knife, police told the Post.
The victim put up a fight. A police source told the paper she tried to wrestle the knife from the suspect, and it “looks like [she]” turned it on him.
If so, she gave more than she got. The suspect — identified as 47-year-old Reggie Frank — was hospitalized with a puncture wound to his left arm and torso, the Post reported.
The woman was also hospitalized, police told the paper, adding that she was described as conscious and alert.
Frank, of Newark, New Jersey, was charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and public lewdness, police told the Post.
Frank was arrested 26 previous times — including 11 busts for public lewdness — and police were searching for him in connection to another public-lewdness case in transit when Friday's incident took place, police sources told the paper.
Frank also has been arrested for two misdemeanor assault and menacing incidents, police added to the Post.
