Assault victim afraid to ride subway again
NEW YORK - In August, Vesly Beato, 22, and her 15-year-old cousin were on an uptown No. 1 subway train pulling into the Lincoln Center station on the Upper West Side when violence found her.
"Right when we approached 66th Street, the doors open and I hear, like, this huge slap and I didn't feel anything — I just heard it," Beato said. "I heard on this ear and I was just like, What? What just happened?"
What just happened was an unprovoked slap from a man with whom she had no interaction or engagement with prior to the incident, she said.
In a video that quickly went viral, she detailed her attack and the aftermath, including the treatment she received at a local emergency room for a cut to her face.
"For the first couple of weeks, I was mad because my face was already was swollen," Beato said. "I had such a good day and it just felt like everything just everything just went left."
News of subway attacks that have happened since hers have hit hard. In fact, she said she feels like a victim all over again.
"It's like it doesn't matter anymore if it's late at night or when it's dark — these things are happening in the daytime and it's ridiculous," she said. "When I see these incidents, my heart breaks for them."
Worst still this native New Yorker from the Bronx, who has taken public transit all her life, has no desire to take the subway anytime soon — if ever again.
"Things can happen to anybody," Beato said. "And this experience really humbled me in the sense that just because you're from New York doesn't mean that things will happen to you."