A Brooklyn man claims an unhinged stranger knocked his front teeth loose during a random beatdown on an F train platform in the Village — and transit workers did nothing to intervene, according to a lawsuit.
Bret Mahrer, 29, was minding his business on the northbound train as it pulled into the West 14th Street/6th Avenue station when he noticed a stranger “looking intently at him” and “mouthing something,” according to court papers.
As the train doors opened, the man began to leave but suddenly turned and slugged Mahrer in the face as he stood inside the train.
“It all happened in a millisecond. He just punched me so hard,” said Mahrer. “He sucker punched me. No warning.”
The altercation spilled onto the platform as the man kept pummeling Mahrer, he alleged in a Manhattan Supreme Court negligence lawsuit against the Transit Authority and the Metropolitan Transit Authority.
“I felt dizzy, I remember looking to the side and a [straphanger] has her camera phone out and i screamed, ‘Is someone going to help me?’” he said. “No one helped me.”
The train sat in the station with the doors open until the Saturday night beating, which happened around 8:15 p.m., stopped and the stranger fled, claims Mahrer, who said he didn’t see any transit workers during the assault.
He was left “dazed and disoriented on the platform … covered in blood,” until two Good Samaritans helped him up to the street and called police. He was treated for a concussion and had his lip stitched at Lenox Health Greenwich Village Hospital, and later learned his teeth were fractured, Mahrer said in court papers.
There were no cameras on the platform where he was assaulted, “though there were cameras on other platforms and throughout the 14th Street Station,” Mahrer said in the litigation which seeks unspecified damages.
There have been no arrests in the assault, police said.
“I feel like the MTA, they should be a little more responsible,” Mahrer said.
“Through his lawsuit, Bret is attempting to force the MTA and NYC Transit to accept some responsibility for people’s safety,” said his attorney, Kenneth F. McCallion.
The MTA declined comment on the litigation.
Kathianne Boniello
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