Four teenage girls were caught in New York after allegedly attacking a 71-year-old woman on New Year’s Day inside a Brooklyn subway station. The poor senior woman was on her way back from church when the girls jumped her and attempted to rob her. The girls are young, ages 13, 14, and two 15-year-olds. Authorities snagged them Wednesday and Thursday this week, charging them each with robbery, assault, and harassment for the attack on Linda Rosa.
One of the 15-year-old girls has a history of violence. She was previously busted in September 2024 for attacking a Queens Police Officer in an attempt to keep him from arresting someone else. Surprisingly, none of the other girls had a prior run-in with the law, at least a violent or recorded one. They were caught on security cameras in the subway strolling through the turnstiles. It is hard to tell if their initial intentions were to find some helpless person to rob or if they were just out doing teenage things.
New York Mugging
Rosa told The Post that one of the girls had tried to grab her purse as soon as she exited the No. 3 train at Hoyt Street. Rosa lives in East New York and is a retired MTA computer operation worker. When the attempted robbery began, she said, “And then I [said to myself], ‘Oh, no, this is not going to happen today.” She held onto her purse, and the situation escalated. Another one of the girls came up to try and steal her purse. The teen said, “Oh, you want to fight?”
The first girl continued fighting her while the other was trying to grab something out of her purse. The poor woman was punched in the face and left with a cut on her nose from her glasses smashing in. Rosa wrestled with the teen girls and ended up on the ground, where one of them allegedly stomped on her. Miraculously, she got up, wrapped her hand around one of the teen’s braids, and held her head down.
Another charged at her, so she snagged her hair and held her head down. She described it, “So I had them both facedown….[like] rams when they’re getting ready to fight.” All while the other two girls screamed for her to let them go. As she holds them down, she yells for help from anyone else. She let them go eventually and picked up her belongings. The teen girls fled out of the New York City subway, and Rosa called the police.
Final Thoughts
She is grateful not to have been in worse shape but was still taken to The Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York to be treated for her injuries. She has remained composed after the incident and very noble by forgiving the teens. She said, “I forgive them. They do not know what they do.” She continued, “They don’t know the consequences of their actions until this happened, and now they have to pay for it – because we all have to pay for our choices.”
