Aiexpress – A Bronx mother of two who was grabbed and slashed by an unruly guy on a rush-hour MTA bus has called out President Biden and Mayor Eric Adams, claiming it is up to them to reclaim “control” of the city.
Stephanie Aquino, 33, told The Post that her terrible ordeal left her praying to see her 3-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter again.
“I just started praying, saying, ‘God, allow me the opportunity to see my kids and go back home,'” Aquino said in a phone interview. “Also, give me the opportunity because I’m not going to jail for this person. It is not worth it.” And protect my children.”
Aquino was riding home on a crowded Bx2 bus about 5:15 p.m. Friday when she overheard another straphanger mumbling “nonsense,” she told The Post in a phone interview on Tuesday.
“Once he stopped talking, he touched me on my buttocks,” Aquino went on to say. “When I looked back, he said it wasn’t him. And everyone was staring at him, and I said, ‘If that wasn’t you, that’s great.’ ” I just hope nothing happens again.”
Instead of halting his antics, the guy attempted to slap Aquino, but she backed away from the attack and informed the driver of what had occurred, she explained.
“I informed the driver, ‘The person sitting down there just slapped me and grabbed my buttocks.’ I was saying, ‘Let me off the bus.’ He said, ‘I didn’t see him hit you.'”
The lanky danger, who was wearing a pair of huge Bluetooth headphones, then erupted in rage and began yelling at Aquino as the bus approached the junction of East Tremont Avenue and Grand Avenue, she claimed.
At that point, Aquino stated that she could only think of her children at home and frantically turned to her faith.
“Once I finished my prayer—llike I said it out loud—hhe jumped on me, literally all over,” she added. “And then the bus driver opened the door. Then the suspect yanked me off the bus and snatched my hoodie.
“And I did a flip, a backflip, and I fell to the ground,” the injured mother continued. “When I was on the ground, my instincts told me to get up. If I don’t get up off the ground, he might damage my head.”
Aquino initially intended to pursue her attacker, but then felt that getting back on the bus was a better option.
But when she reboarded the bus, she learned the outraged attacker had the same idea.
“Everyone screamed. They said, ‘He’s coming back!” He’s coming back!” she recalled. “I did not see the knife first. He stabbed me maybe three times in the chest and belly, everywhere.
“He slashed my face in the same way,” she explained. “He was really fast. I was nervous. He hurt me in such a way that I felt he meant to kill me.”
Aquino attempted to fight back, pulling out her pepper spray, but it did not work, she claimed.
“I was thinking about my kids because I have two children,” she told me. “Look, my child, he is on the autistic spectrum. And he needs me. He’s always cuddling and hugging me.” I was motivated to fight for my life to avoid further injury.”
Aquino claimed no one on the crowded bus rushed to her rescue.
The assailant then allegedly fled the bus, where one do-gooder appeared to strike him with a stick, but he escaped.
Aquino was transferred to BronxCare Health System and remained in discomfort this week, with headaches, anxiety, and terror.
“Every time I [should] be calm, my heartbeats are very fast,” said the woman, who came to the Bronx in 2014 after living in Florida. “Like today, I went outside. “I was looking around, as if I saw this guy… being aware of it.”
Aquino is pressing both local and national leaders to do more to protect New Yorkers, particularly by increasing police presence in the city’s uptown and Bronx metro systems.
“The president and the mayor have to have control of the city again,” she went on to say. “The city wasn’t like that before.”
Aquino further stated that she believes the city took a negative turn after numerous federal jobless benefit programs established during the COVID-19 outbreak expired.
She also condemned the state bail reform laws passed in 2020, which she described as allowing a revolving-door criminal justice system.
“I don’t think violent people should be allowed to be outside,” he remarked. “Why are violent people still going outside? They’ll go to jail today and be released the next day.”
The NYPD issued a photo of the still-at-large attacker late Monday, describing him as between 25 and 30 years old, weighing between 100 and 135 pounds, standing between 5 feet 7 and 6 feet 2, and having a slender build.
He was last seen wearing a black or gray jacket, black and blue jeans, a pink bag, and white sneakers.
Anyone with information on the attack should contact the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
