INSTANT JUSTICE

Drunken man gets beat up by straphangers after he attacks mom on New York subway train

By Kerry Burke, Rocco Parascandola and Ginger Adams Otis

New York Daily News
November 17, 2017

An avenging group of straphangers who witnessed a volatile drunk walloping a young mom on a Bronx subway delivered some street justice — punching and kicking the attacker into submission.

The violent melee broke out around 7:15 p.m. Thursday on a Manhattan-bound No. 6 train near the Hunts Point Ave. station, police sources said.

Ana Yates 29, was traveling with daughters Bryanna and Irene, ages 8 and 1, and son Evan, 4, when a man police sources identified as Ramel Jefferson went berserk on the train.

With her terror-stricken children watching in horror, Jefferson launched a violent attack on Yates, menacing her with a bottle, punching her in the face and grabbing her by the hair to drag her. Jefferson also shoved her into a pole and bench.

Yates was alone in the subway car with just her kids and Jefferson when the vicious assault took place, according to her ex-boyfriend Byrant Bostick, the dad of the three kids.

“[Jefferson] was drunk and vulgar around my children, that’s how it started,” he said.

“They were in the car alone, and she did the right thing, she kept his focus off the kids and on herself. She’s a good mother and a strong woman,” Bostick, 29, added.

When the train pulled into the Hunts Point Ave. station, shocked commuters on the platform saw Jefferson hitting Yates. Several good Samaritans pulled the crazed drunk away from the mom and threw him to the ground, kicking and punching him until police responded.

“I’m really grateful to those people,” Bostick said. “I’m glad for what they did.” Cell phone video posted online by a passenger shows an intoxicated Jefferson, 58, struggling with police.

Yates, who brings the kids home to Bostick in Bushwick every night from her mom’s house in the Bronx, suffered cuts on her chin and arm, as well as a bruised right shoulder.

Jefferson, who has eight prior arrests, was charged with assault, acting in a manner injurious to children, menacing and resisting arrest.

He has eight prior arrests for criminal contempt, theft of service and drugs, sources said.

He was held on $2,500 bail at arraignment Friday night.