The man, Marc Gomez, 36, of Yonkers, New York, was arrested at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in lower Manhattan, police said. Gomez was identified this week by an anonymous tipster who said he often hung around areas of lower Manhattan. Gomez was charged with felony assault.
The attack, which took place about 3 a.m. March 10, surfaced this week when a video of the assault was posted to the internet. The recording of the attack had received more than 10 million views as of Saturday afternoon.
The video showed a tall man wearing jeans, glasses, a leather jacket and a knit cap forcefully kicking the woman at least six times as she sat on a northbound No. 2 train that was pulling into the Nereid Avenue station. Bystanders recorded the encounter and shouted but did not intervene. It was not clear what preceded the attack.
As the man made his way off the train, he turned to the passengers recording and said, “WorldStar that” — a reference to a popular website that often showcases clips of violent altercations.
The woman was met by an ambulance at the next train station, and treated for swelling and cuts to the face, police said.
While crime in the subway — and the city — is at lows not seen since the 1950s, violent encounters in the transit system posted to social media receive outsized attention. One such attack was the murder of 20-year-old Abel Mosso by rival gang members on a Queens subway platform last month.
As of March 17, there were 465 reported crimes in the transit system, down from 476 during the same period in 2018.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.