Two victims of horrific subway violence say MTA cameras did not work during their attacks.
Improper surveillance cameras at Brooklyn stations this week prevented cops from searching for Frank James, the suspected Brooklyn subway shooter, sources told The Post.
The MTA opposes calls for full reporting of its surveillance system, which is supposed to provide live broadcasts from 5,100 NYPD cameras, with another 5,000 cameras recording.
But Chris Angisaka, who was stabbed in the eye by a crazy man on Train A on Feb. 14, said cops told him subway cameras didn’t work north of 190th Street.
Angisaka, 19, was returning to Upper Manhattan from work at the Amazon Performance Center in New Jersey at about 6 a.m. when he saw a man approaching him and an insulting friend calling him a Mexican.
The trio started fighting and the attacker hit Anguisaka in the face and took out “half scissors”, the victim recalls.
“Initially, he tried to put it in my throat. He tried to kill me, “he said.
Chris Anguisaka was told by police that subway cameras were not working north of 190th Street after he was stabbed in the eye by a crazy man on train A on February 14.
The man stabbed him in the left eye and then fled when the train stopped at 203rd Street Station. Angisaka was blinded.
“This is crazy,” Anguisaka said of the subway attack this week. “There must be cameras, especially at the station.
New York police said an investigation into Angisaka’s attack was ongoing, but did not comment on cameras at the station.
Rebecca Lamorte, 30, a disabled activist and former Municipal Council candidate, said twice that she had been attacked on the subway – both times authorities said the cameras were not working.
The subway cameras did not work in 2013, when Rebecca Lamort was pushed out of the subway car at E. 51st St. and Lexington Ave., crushing his leg. Helane Seidman
In 2013, she said she was getting off train 6 on 51st Street when “a woman pushed me.”
“I thought I was putting my left foot on the platform, and that was actually the gap between the train and the platform. “My leg came in, it was crushed between the train and the platform,” she told The Post.
The next morning she could not walk. The nerves in her left leg are already “completely ruined,” causing daily pain and forcing her to walk with a cane, she said.
“I wanted footage from the camera. I was told that the cameras did not work there. They are either broken or there is no tape in them to record something, “she said. “I want to know what happened to me. … My life is forever shaped by this moment. ”
Lamorte’s left leg is now “completely destroyed”, causing her daily pain and forcing her to walk with a cane, she said. Helane Seidman
In 2015, on a 4/5 train downtown, “a man chose to masturbate on me,” Lamort said.
She wore crutches and a brace, and wondered if the pervert had marked her as an easy target.
Again without shots.
“I went to the transit police. “I asked for cameras,” she said. “I was told again, ‘Oh, no, there are no cameras.’ The office didn’t even have to look at him.”
“We paid our taxes to put cameras there, but they are not used,” she said.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller downplayed the role of faulty cameras in the investigation into the discovery of James after Tuesday’s attack, saying the MTA had provided images from other stations.
Members of the Municipal Council on Thursday demanded a full audit of the system.
A 2019 audit by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli found that the New York Transit Department had not performed the necessary preventive maintenance on its security system.
Lamorte said the transit police had told her there were no cameras on the 4/5 train. Helain Seidman
And when problems were identified, the repairs were not “timely”, the audit said.
At the time of the audit in 2019, there were 9,920 closed-circuit television cameras and 334 digital video recorders in the entire system.
DiNapoli said in a statement that “much-needed time has been lost” due to damage to the camera system this week.
“The MTA needs to do work to ensure that riders feel safe. At a minimum, this means making sure that existing security measures work. “New Yorkers are resilient and will persevere, but they deserve the peace of mind that comes from a transit system that puts their safety first,” DiNapoli said in a statement.
Add Comment