A Valentine\u2019s Day morning commute turned violent in Sunset Park when police say a man attacked three women within minutes, including pushing one onto subway tracks.<\/p>\n
Investigators arrested 25-year-old Curtis Signal in connection with the assaults. He is charged with multiple counts of assault, reckless endangerment and attempted murder and remains in custody. He is due back in court Thursday.<\/p>\n
One of the victims, 43-year-old Benita Frias, remains hospitalized as she recovers from serious injuries. Her daughter, 18-year-old Isamar Duran, said the family is still in shock.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s traumatized,” said Duran. “She\u2019s still in shock. Like she can\u2019t believe that that happened to her. She\u2019s still, like, asking, like, why?\u201d<\/p>\n
Police said the attacks began at the R train station at 53rd Street, where Signal allegedly pushed a 51-year-old woman onto the tracks before attacking Frias.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just start like beating her up, like, out of nowhere and she said that she thought she was going to get killed,” her daughter said.<\/p>\n
Frias had just finished an overnight shift as a home health aide and was heading back to the Bronx when she was attacked, her daughter said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t leave until she stopped moving around, so I think he thought she was dead and then that\u2019s when he left.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doctors performed knee reconstruction surgery, and she is unable to walk. Duran described seeing her mother after the attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my gosh just like my heart came out of my body,” Duran said. “Oh my God, it was horrible. When I saw my mom just connected to many machines and stuff, that just broke my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police said the suspect then walked outside and punched a 17-year-old girl near 52nd Street and Fourth Avenue before officers arrested him minutes later.<\/p>\n
Duran questioned why the suspect was free before the attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course,” she said. “I feel like if they would\u2019ve taken accountability from the first moment, because this is not the first time he does that. I just feel like that will never happen to my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Records show Signal has four prior assault arrests, including a 2023 case involving a 67-year-old woman in Queens. The Queens District Attorney\u2019s Office said he pleaded guilty, but the felony charge was vacated after he completed an inpatient treatment program and he was sentenced to probation in June.<\/p>\n
Duran said the family is struggling to process what happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have, like, a roller coaster of emotions, you know, like, I feel grateful that my mom is alive but also I just feel angry,” Duran said. “I just feel like. Like why? You know, like, she didn\u2019t deserve that. That\u2019s just my only thoughts. Like, why is somebody with that record on the street like, that happened to my mom but it could have been anybody else. It could be me. It could be you. It could be anybody.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Valentine\u2019s Day morning commute turned violent in Sunset Park when police say a man attacked three women…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[211,357,128,98,9,24,63,615,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-139269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-assault","tag-assaults","tag-bronx","tag-brooklyn","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-subway","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139269","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=139269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}