The suspect who was charged with attempted murder after the "brutal" hammer attack on a woman in a New York subway station was found to have been previously jailed for 18 years.
The Queens County District Attorney's office said in a news release that the suspect, 57-year-old William Blount, was arraigned on Monday night in Queens Criminal Court. Authorities also charged the man with assault in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree.
Brutal Hammer Attack
The charges against Blount come as a spate of recent subway attacks that have forced city officials to implement new safety measures to mitigate crime in the region. Last week, police said that the victim, who was a woman, was assaulted at the Queens Plaza subway station on Thursday night by a six-foot-tall male wearing a dark jacket, blue jeans, and holding a cane.
The victim was immediately brought to a hospital and given medical treatment for a skull fracture and other head wounds she received from the attack. The woman's family identified her as Nina Rothschild who worked as a scientist for the New York City Department of Health, as per CNN.
Authorities also discovered that the hammer attack suspect was previously in prison for 18 years and was involved in a jailbreak that resulted in the death of a prison guard. Blount's previous sentence was served in South Carolina for charges of armed robbery and kidnapping.
Law enforcement personnel busted the 57-year-old suspect in 2000 in the case after he and his brother broke into a Bojangles restaurant and kidnapped two workers while armed and forcing the workers to open a safe.
According to the New York Post, in that same year, Blount and two other individuals attempted an escape from the Richland County Jail located in Columbia, South Carolina. In the chaos, 59-year-old jail guard Alvin Glenn was strangled to death and the three suspects leaped from the prison roof.
Stolen Property
The situation comes as authorities have arrested a woman who used the victim's credit card at a grocery store after the brutal hammer assault. Investigators said that while they did not believe the 57-year-old Denise Alston was involved in the attack she was found to have been in possession of Rothschild's credit card. Authorities charged Alston with criminal possession of the stolen property and identity theft.
Police said that Blount allegedly followed the victim down the stairs at the Queens Plaza station before kicking her and pulling out a hammer and hitting her repeatedly in the head and taking her purse and running away.
On Monday, Rothschild's brother said in an interview that he visited his sister at New York Presbyterial Weill Cornell. Gerson Rothschild said that the victim was mentally strong but not as physically strong as he had imagined her to be.
Queen's Borough President Donovan Richards released a statement saying that his heart goes out to the victim. He called Rothschild an unsung hero, being an essential worker, who he argued has done so much during the coronavirus pandemic, CBS News reported.
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