A 15-year-old boy with autism was dragged off a Manhattan train and pummeled on the platform by a crew of heartless strangers who hurled a racial slur at him, disturbing video shows.
The alarming clip, posted to Instagram late Monday, shows a young woman wearing a Chicago Bulls sweatshirt pulling the defenseless teen off a northbound A train at the 181st Street–Fort Washington Avenue station around 5:30 p.m. Friday and screaming, “Get off!”
She keeps a grip on the boy’s shirt, pulls him down the busy rush-hour platform and repeatedly yells, “Walk! Walk!”
A male voice can then be heard yelling the N-word followed by “alert.”
The teen is shown trying to get back on the train, but the woman drags him off again before someone else socks him in the face — the first of many punches the group throws at him, the clip shows.
The victim’s glasses are yanked from his face and he throws a few jabs to defend himself as someone yells, “Fight back!”
The boy was punched repeatedly in the head and face, and suffered a cut on his lip, the NYPD’s 34th Precinct said on Facebook, as cops released a photo of three suspects — who appear to be teens themselves.
The victim did not know his assailants, according to the NYPD, which said the Hate Crime Task Force was notified because of the anti-black slur that was used.
No arrests have been made.
The boy’s mom, who did not want to be identified because of safety fears for herself and her son, told WABC that her son does not know who attacked him or why.
“It’s the first time it hit me — like it hit me directly,” she said. “I always see it happen to other people. I never see it happen to me in my household.”
The mom said she hasn’t seen the harrowing footage of the attack, telling the outlet, “I refuse to watch that video. Nobody wants to see their kid being assaulted.”
She knew her son — who has high-functioning autism — had left their Queens home that evening, but was shocked when she learned he had made it to Upper Manhattan and was being treated at the hospital.
“Keep a closer eye on them,” she said in a warning to other parents. “Because a lot of trouble could have been avoided had I done that.”
NYC Transit President Richard Davey condemned the ruthless attack.
“This video is heartbreaking and disturbing and our hearts are with the young man seemingly being senselessly victimized,” Davey said in a statement. “No one should be subject to this sort of hateful harassment while they are riding with New York City Transit, and the MTA is fully cooperating with the NYPD in its investigation into the incident.”
The video was posted by an Instagram page called “The Best of Harlem.”
“I can’t even begin to explain how heartbroken, angry and disgusted I am at seeing this video,” the poster wrote. “I don’t know what preceded this clip on that train, but I’m extremely hard pressed to think of anything that justifies what takes place.”