MANHATTAN – A frightening encounter on an Upper East Side subway train ended with a 67-year-old Bronx man in handcuffs, arrested by NYPD officers at the East 86th Street-Lexington Avenue station, accused of threatening a 6-year-old boy and his mother with a metal baton after a minor mishap.
Kayla McCutchen was riding a southbound 4 train with her son around 2:00 pm Tuesday afternoon, when she says the boy accidentally kicked the suspect, according to reporting by NBC4.
“You know kids,” the 29-year-old mother told NBC4 shortly after the incident, “kids don’t stay still on the train and I guess he just has a temper.”
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After McCutchen and the man exchanged words, the NYPD tells Upper East Site the suspect pulled out a metal baton and started making threats– McKutchen later described his baton as expandable, like the type carried by police.
Witnesses told NBC4 that strangers jumped on top of the 67-year-old suspect, disarmed him, then pulled him off the train at the East 86th Street-Lexington Avenue station and held him until officers arrived.
The NYPD could not immediately confirm those details to Upper East Site, though the suspect was seen in video being led out of the subway station in handcuffs.
Thankfully, Kayla and her son were not injured during the frightening incident.
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“As long as he’s not hurt, that’s all that matters to me,” she told NBC4, referencing her son.
“I don’t think you could come back from a hit like that,” she added.
Charles Hodge is now charged with menacing, criminal possession of a weapon and acting in a manner injurious to a child less than 17 years old, according to police.
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Shall we take a poll on whether the alleged assailant gets a desk ticket and goes back on the streets because of the bail reform laws?