A Subway Conductor Announced A Late-Night Service Change ― And Furious Straphangers Beat Him For It

The New York City Police Department is searching for two furious straphangers who attacked a subway conductor for announcing that a train would be making express stops on Saturday.

A male and a female passenger punched Jacob Credell, 62, in the face around 4:40 a.m. at the Grant Avenue station in Brooklyn, according to the NYPD.

Footage released by the NYPD shows the man attempt to reach through a window while the conductor attempts to shove him away. Meanwhile, the woman joins the fray and begins hitting the MTA worker.

The duo then ran away, according to reports.

“Us transit workers don’t come to work to get beat up. When these assaults happen the MTA and our union Local 100 stand idle, put out a statement and hope the members forget about their inaction,” Trammel Thompson, head of transit worker activist group Progressive Action, told the New York Post.

Credell had brusies and lacerations on his face after the attack. TWU Local 100 Communications Director Jim Gannon told Oxygen.com on Tuesday via email that he believed Credell had returned to work on Tuesday, and that "he had a black eye and other cuts."

The union official told the Post that MTA officials are discussing the “potential” for outfitting subway staffers with body cameras for their protection.

Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Tony Utano said Tuesday that while he hasn’t talked with the NYPD transit bureau chief about the situation, he will schedule a sit-down “so we can get these videos quicker and we can get the police presence out there,” the New York Daily News reports.

He added that he has, however, talked to the department about assaults. “Their response to me was, ‘We’ll get you the information and we’ll put it out and we’ll get police out there to investigate,” he said, according to the Daily News.

Meanwhile, Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday tweeted his support for the MTA and and transit union.

“The recent assaults on MTA workers are sickening and will not be tolerated. The men and women of the @TWUlocal100 make the subway run and deserve to do their jobs with our respect,” he wrote.

According to the Daily News, the NYPD recorded five fewer assaults against transit workers so far this year—24 in 2018, compared to 29 during the same period last year.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential.

[Credit: NYPD]