Award-winning PBS journalist Jane Ferguson reported that she was punched in the face on a New York City subway car this week.
She shared the story on Twitter Monday and described how she went from minding her own business to becoming the victim of an unprovoked attack.
“At 6.30pm today I was violently assaulted on the NYC subway,” she told her Twitter followers. “A man walked up to me in a busy rush-hour car and punched me, hard, on the side of the face.”
“I kneeled down on the floor in shock, and steadied myself, unsure what had just happened, my ear ringing and face on fire,” she stated.
1. At 6.30pm today I was violently assaulted on the NYC subway. A man walked up to me in a busy rush-hour car and punched me, hard, on the side of the face. I kneeled down on the floor in shock, and steadied myself, unsure what had just happened, my ear ringing and face on fire..
— Jane Ferguson (@JaneFerguson5) March 27, 2023
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The 38-year-old explained that she wanted to share the harrowing encounter with the world in order to offer a shoutout to a kind stranger.
“The reason I’m tweeting this is, as I knelt on the floor, I felt an arm around my shoulder and a woman pulled me away,” Ferguson wrote.
“The young woman took me off the car at the next stop and to the police there at grand central station before giving me a hug and making sure I got home ok…”
2. The reason I’m tweeting this is, as I knelt on the floor, I felt an arm around my shoulder and a woman pulled me away. The young woman took me off the car at the next stop and to the police there at grand central station before giving me a hug and making sure I got home ok…
— Jane Ferguson (@JaneFerguson5) March 27, 2023
The “NewsHour” correspondent did not know the woman’s last name but called her Samantha.
“I didn’t catch any other information as I was in shock and am sorry about that,” she said. “So Samantha who was on the number 4 express train between 59th st and grand central today at rush hour – thank you.”
Getting sucker-punched in New York apparently did not affect the way she views people who live in the city.
“New Yorkers are pretty great,” Ferguson concluded.
3. Her name is Samantha. I didn’t catch any other information as I was in shock and am sorry about that. So Samantha who was on the number 4 express train between 59th st and grand central today at rush hour – thank you. New Yorkers are pretty great.
— Jane Ferguson (@JaneFerguson5) March 28, 2023
Ferguson has won multiple awards for her reporting in Yemen, including an Emmy in 2019.
Random attacks in New York — particularly in the subway system — have been reported with alarming frequency in recent years.
Many in the city have blamed the attacks on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office has taken a lax approach to the prosecution of violent criminals.
