Dramatic video captured the moment a 69-year-old homeless man stabbed the thugs who mercilessly terrorized him on a Queens subway train, killing one and injuring another.
In a twist of traffic justice, it is the surviving thugs who are now behind bars, prosecutors said.
“The victim was approached, without provocation, and our investigation has shown that he fought back while attempting to recover his property,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz he said in a statement Wednesday.
“As a result, my office will not press charges in the death.”
Shocking images of the violent encounter on a 7 train on December 22 show the victim sleeping on the train shortly before 12:30 a.m. when two of the brutes, identified by prosecutors as Stalin Moya and Oswaldo Walter, grab one of the man’s bags and take him to a second car.
Moya then returns and grabs more bags from the victim, waking her up in the process.
That’s when things got violent.
The unidentified victim followed Moya to the second car to try to retrieve her things, only to be attacked and beaten by several men in the group as they dispersed and hid their suitcases.
Footage shows the victim being pushed and punched repeatedly by the group, until he grew tired and pulled out a long knife and slashed at his attackers, injuring at least two.
The cowardly thugs then disperse (one is seen stumbling away, bleeding from his wounds) while the victim remains in the middle of the empty subway car, still clutching the knife.
Queens prosecutors said Moya was killed and defendant Phillipe Pena was wounded.
Pena, 26, Walter, 29, and two others (José Valencia, 35, and Henry Toapanta, 32), have now been indicted by a grand jury for robbery and assault in the incident.
The district attorney’s office said all of the suspects are also homeless.
“Our subways must be safe for the millions of people who depend on public transportation,” Katz said in his statement. “The New York City subway system has been equipped with cameras and the video recovered in this case is vital to our prosecution.”
The incident comes amid a recent spike in subway violence and has similarities with previous cases where bandits fought against traffic thugs.
The most notable is the case of Daniel Penny, a marine who was acquitted in the strangulation death of homeless man Jordan Neely on a Manhattan F train in 2023.
Another hanger, Jordan Williams, Aggressive homeless man fatally stabbed man who assaulted him and his companion on a Brooklyn J train that same year, but was acquitted when a grand jury voted not to indict him on involuntary manslaughter and weapons charges.
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods
