{"id":125626,"date":"2026-02-06T21:35:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/125626\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T21:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:35:30","slug":"victim-of-brooklyn-anti-muslim-rampage-offered-suspect-seat-on-bus-stop-bench-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/125626\/","title":{"rendered":"Victim of Brooklyn anti-Muslim rampage offered suspect seat on bus stop bench"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the three Muslim victims wearing hijabs targeted by a rampaging woman during a hate-fueled 11-minute spree<\/a> in Brooklyn said she offered the woman a seat on a bench before she was attacked, the Daily News has learned.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old victim was sitting at a bus shelter waiting for a B53 bus<\/a> with her 11-year-old daughter on Jan. 30 when the suspect, Megan Horne, walked over and plopped down on the ice-covered sidewalk, the victim told The News Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Horne) came and she sat down on the ground on the ice,\u201d said the victim, who wished not to be named. The victim was heading to the gym when Horne showed up, she said. \u201cI took off my bag and told her, \u2018Have a seat.\u2019 She sat next to me and thanks me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things took a dark turn a few moments later when the bus arrived. The victim\u2019s child had just gotten on the bus when Horne suddenly shoved the Muslim mom.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe came from behind and pushed me in my left shoulder, backwards and said, \u2018I\u2019m the first!\u2019 and come in front of me and blocked the path,\u201d the woman recalled. \u201c(She) kept talking and moving her hands up. I just told her I want to catch the bus, my kid is inside (but) she keeps talking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised,\u201d the victim said. \u201cI think immediately that maybe she was drinking or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victim and her daughter \u2014 who was celebrating her 11th birthday that day \u2014 rode the bus in silence while Horne stood nearby. At times Horne came up and mumbled something about the child\u2019s beauty, the victim remembered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the police took me to their office, my kid was with me,\u201d she said. \u201cShe listened to what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was only then that the victim learned that two other Muslims wearing hijabs had been attacked by the same woman, authorities said.<\/p>\n

At about 2:20 p.m. that Friday, Horne allegedly stormed up and kicked a 33-year-old woman in a hijab \u2014 a head scarf that religious Muslim women wear \u2014 outside a preschool on Fifth Ave. near 89th St., according to officials.<\/p>\n

She yelled, \u201cGet out of this country!\u201d and fled, Assistant District Attorney Ari Rottenberg said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Five minutes later, Horne ran up to a 12-year-old Muslim girl near the corner of 92nd St. and Gelston Ave., punching the preteen in the face before storming off to the bus stop, the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of the complainants was wearing a hijab at the time of the incident,\u201d Rottenberg said.<\/p>\n

None of Horne\u2019s victims was seriously injured.<\/p>\n

Horne was taken into custody on Wednesday and charged with multiple counts of assault and aggravated harassment as hate crimes, meaning she will be facing stiffer possible jail sentences when convicted.<\/p>\n

Rottenberg said police found surveillance footage of Horne from the first attack in the spree, showing her getting into a Ford Bronco registered to someone connected to Horne through domestic-incident reports.<\/p>\n

The two adult victims weren\u2019t able to pick Horne out of a photo array, Rottenberg said \u2014 but Horne told police she was the person in an image from the surveillance footage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s me in the pictures. I don\u2019t remember that day. I drink a lot. I drank all that day,\u201d she told cops, according to Rottenberg.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Edward Daniels let her free on supervised release, provided she completes a planned 28-day inpatient alcohol treatment program.<\/p>\n

Her lawyer, Isabel Zeitz-Moskin of Brooklyn Defender Services, said Horne has a \u201cstable residence\u201d living with her aunt, and was planning to start a new job Monday as a dispatcher and administrative assistant.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has every intention of returning to court,\u201d the attorney added. \u201cShe wants to fight these charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bias-fueled spree drew the ire of Mayor Mamdani late Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am outraged by the despicable, cowardly attacks against Muslim New Yorkers in Bay Ridge last week<\/a> \u2014 one of which was on a 12-year-old girl,\u201d Mamdani posted on X. \u201cThis violence is unacceptable, and we know that all too often visibly Muslim, hijab-wearing women and girls bear the brunt of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMuslim New Yorkers deserve to live with safety and dignity, and to be able to walk our streets free from harassment, threats, or harm,\u201d the mayor continued. \u201cIslamophobia has no place in our city, and violence or intimidation against Muslim New Yorkers is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the three Muslim victims wearing hijabs targeted by a rampaging woman during a hate-fueled 11-minute spree…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,54050,54532,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-125626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-megan-horne","tag-muslim-women","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}