A “serial spitter” who has been terrorizing women for years at two Brooklyn subway stations is leaving commuters on edge and stirring up concern from local lawmakers, The Post has learned.
Straphangers have filed multiple complaints with the NYPD about being harassed and spat on in the 15th Street Prospect Park subway station and the 7 Avenue/9 Street subway stations — with dozens of threads on the community’s Reddit page detailing tales about the elusive “7th Avenue spitter” who continues to lurk in the stations despite years of complaints.
A “serial spitter” is terrorizing women at Brooklyn’s 15th Street Prospect Park and 7 Avenue/9 Street subway stations. Paul Martinka
“The spitter just spat on my wife’s head at the 15 St–Prospect Park station,” one Reddit user wrote on the page for the Park Slope nabe in early February.
“He’s at the 16th St entrance just past the turnstiles, waiting for women to walk by and spitting on them as they go down the stairs. He’s there with his dog,” the user warned.
“He’s back. with a dog. Be safe y’all,” another user posted just days later.
Melanie L., 29, told The Post that her friend recently witnessed one of the disturbing attacks unfold outside the 15 St–Prospect Park station, a stop for the F and G train subway lines.
“My friend was leaving for work one day, and he [the spitter] was just pacing back and forth in front of the station on 15th,” Melanie detailed.
The man then suddenly spat on a woman as she was entering the station.
“She told me the lady was in so much shock that she just looked at him with disgust and ran down the stairs,” she added. “The spit landed on her pants.”
When her friend yelled at the man, Melanie said, “he just stared at her, which kind of made her feel like she couldn’t have been next.”
One local said he has spent much of the last year discussing the attacks with community members, police, Brooklyn Councilwoman Shahana Hanif (D-39), and Assemblyman Robert Carroll (D-Brooklyn). He took up the cause, he said, after his wife was spat on at the 7th Avenue station last spring.
Straphangers and Brooklyn Councilwoman Shahana Hanif are frustrated by the ongoing attacks and lack of action. Helayne Seidman
Around 3 p.m., when schools were getting out, the resident’s wife was spat on by a man whom the couple had repeatedly noticed lurking in the station since 2020, sometimes with a pit bull or panhandling.
“She wasn’t sure if he’d spit on her, but when I looked at her dress … there was clearly spit,” he recalled.
The resident said he has since spoken with Hanif, police officials, and Carroll about his concerns — but claimed that the lawmakers and cops have expressed that their hands are tied.
“I’ve pushed every single button I could push,” he said. “Nobody wants to do anything about it, and it makes me really feel a lot less hope for public safety in the city because this is not a complicated problem.
“You’ll see plenty of instances where this guy threatens, yells at, chases, spits on women, and nobody that I’ve been able to harass or talk to has been able to do anything about it,” he added. “This is a middle-class, upper-middle-class neighborhood with tons of resources. If we can’t solve a simple problem here, I don’t know how we can solve it anywhere else.”
The NYPD confirmed several instances of spit-attacks in the two subway stations this February — including a woman who reported being spat on her head by a man during morning rush hour in the 15th Street Prospect Park Station.
On Feb 15, 2026, a 46-year-old woman also reported that a man spoke to her and attempted to spit on her as she walked down to the 7 Avenue/9 Street train station, police added.
One individual, Norbert Williams, 33, has been busted multiple times for similar incidents at the two Park Slope train stations, cops said — but he has not been tied to the latest attacks by officials.
Williams was busted as recently as July 15, 2025, after police said he allegedly targeted the same 24-year-old woman in separate incidents at the 15th Street Prospect Park station in February and June 2025, according to the NYPD.
On Feb. 4, 2025, Williams allegedly spat at the woman in the mezzanine area and chased her. On June 6, 2025, he also allegedly approached her and spoke to her in a menacing tone, cops said.
He was charged with harassment and stalking and ultimately granted supervised release as the charges were not bail eligible, sources added.
Williams also allegedly spat at a 28-year-old woman at the 15th Street Prospect Park station on May 26, 2024, police said.
As she followed him and tried to take a photo, he allegedly punched her in the left side of her face and caused minor scratches to her face and hand, cops said. He was then cuffed and hit with assault charges on June 27, 2024.
The NYPD confirmed several instances of spit-attacks in the two subway stations this February. Helayne Seidman
Williams has at least 15 previous arrests, with prior cases involving forcible touching, assault, reckless endangerment, terroristic threats, and multiple transit offenses, sources added.
Multiple straphangers have reported to cops that they were followed, spat on, and harassed by an unidentified man after refusing to give him money.
A worker who frequents the 15th Street station often said he’s heard many stories about “7th Ave Spitter” and noted that he often picks on “soft targets.”
“He don’t pick on nobody healthy. He picks on women, children, or somebody decrepit,” the worker, who wished not to be identified, said. “He knows what he’s doing, and it’s a cowardly thing to do, because you’re picking on women.”
One father who walks past the station daily with his daughter frequently sees the well-known spitter and fears it’s only a matter of time before the harassment escalates.
“Someone is going to get hurt. I can feel it,” he said.
“I’m just a middle-aged white dude, and he’s highly preferential towards targeting females, especially when alone. He just asks me for money.
“Every day I have to go by him, escorting my little girl to and from school, you don’t know what kind of headspace he’s in or what can happen,” he said. “This guy is a serial stalker, and nobody wants to do anything about it.”
In a statement late February, Hanif wrote that her office met with NYPD transit officials and the Brooklyn District Attorney regarding the serial spitter after an influx of “frightening” reports from primarily female straphangers.
“There has been a pattern of incidents over time involving the same individual. When this person was receiving court-mandated mental health services last year, reported incidents decreased significantly,” Hanif wrote.
After the court-mandated services ended for the person — who was not named in the statement — in December 2025, reports of spitting incidents increased again, the councilwoman said.
Hanif, however, said officials have not been able to nab the man because spitting is technically often treated as a “violation-level” offense, and “threats, physical contact, or other conduct” are often needed to raise the charge.
Officials have not been able to nab the man because spitting is technically often treated as a “violation-level” offense. Paul Martinka
“Law enforcement and prosecutors rely on formal reports and evidence so the District Attorney can evaluate potential charges and courts can determine next steps,” Hanif wrote, urging straphangers to continue making detailed reports to police about any incidents.
“Everyone deserves to travel safely and with dignity. I will continue to press every available enforcement and intervention option with our agency partners,” she wrote.
Neither Hanif nor Carroll’s office responded to The Post’s requests for additional comment.
In a statement, the NYPD told The Post that officers will continue to patrol the 15th Street–Prospect Park and 7 Avenue/9 Street subway stations as the complaints persist.
“Officers will continue to patrol the 15th Street–Prospect Park and 7 Avenue/9 Street subway stations, and the impacted transit districts have been alerted about these incidents,” an NYPD spokesperson said.
“The NYPD takes all reports of harassment seriously and urges anyone who experiences or witnesses an incident to call 911 for an immediate response.”
Additional reporting by Estrella McDaniel