UNFORTUNATELY, MOST NEW YORKERS HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO TAKE THE SUBWAY TO GO TO WORK AND TO GO BACK HOME

Thai model attacked on NYC subway slams authorities after Michelle Go’s death 

 

By Tamar Lapin and Emily Crane

 

New York Post

January 20, 2022

 

 

Bew Jirajariyawetch was beaten and robbed of her purse at the 34th Street-Herald Square station on Nov. 22

 

A Thai model who was savagely beaten at a Manhattan subway stop two months ago slammed authorities on Thursday for failing to prevent straphanger Michelle Go from becoming the latest fatal subway-shove victim.

Bew Jirajariyawetch, 23, was brutalized and robbed of her purse at the 34th Street-Herald Square station on Nov. 22 when a stranger put her in a chokehold in the middle of the deserted platform.

Weeks after surviving her own assault, the young woman told The Post she was devastated to learn Go had been killed in a Saturday attack at the Times Square station.

“I am so sad. I was lucky and she was not,” Jirajariyawetch said of the 40-year-old victim.

“It should not have happened. I cannot understand why nothing has changed. I give my condolences to her family.”

Go was pushed into the path of an incoming train at the Times Square station just after 9:30 a.m. by 61-year-old homeless ex-con Martial Simon, police said.

Simon, whose family says he is schizophrenic, was ordered by a judge to undergo a psychiatric evaluation when he was arraigned on murder charges Wednesday. 

  Jirajariyawetch documented her injuries from the brutal assault

 

In the wake of Go’s death, Jirajariyawetch’s lawyer Eric Parnes took aim at the system — saying authorities had “ignored” his client’s attack and her warning to prevent something similar from happening again.

“Illogical policies have encouraged this by failing to enforce basic concepts of law and order and by treating the perpetrators of crimes as victims,” Parnes told The Post of Go’s alleged attacker.

No arrests have been made yet in Jirajariyawetch’s case, but Parnes said an NYPD detective and the district attorney’s office had recently made contact about the case. 

 

Jirajariyawetch’s attacker put his hands over her mouth and then threw her to the ground and punched her repeatedly, as seen in surveillance footage

 

The lawyer couldn’t divulge any specifics related to the probe.

Jirajariyawetch hasn’t ruled out taking legal action against the city over her own attack, Parnes added.

The man who attacked Jirajariyawetch was caught on surveillance cameras approaching her from behind as she waited alone for a train home to Queens around 4 a.m. after seeing Thai American singer Daboyway in concert.

 

Surveillance cameras caught the suspect in Jirajariyawetch’s attack, but he has not been apprehended by police

 

Recalling the terrifying ordeal, Jirajariyawetch told The Post last month that her attacker put his hands over her mouth “to make sure I couldn’t make any noise” — and then threw her to the ground and punched her repeatedly.

“He dragged me where nobody could see … Beat me … Took my purse,” she said.

“I’m just glad that I’m still alive.”

 

“I was lucky and [Michelle Go] was not,” said Bew Jirajariyawetch, comparing her attack to the recent killing of another Asian woman

 

The attack on Jirajariyawetch and the fatal incident involving Go are the latest in a string of recent assaults on straphangers.

Mayor Eric Adams came under fire this week after Go’s slaying when he dismissed concern over subway incidents as simply “perception of fear.”

New NYPD statistics show transit crimes in the Big Apple have soared 65.5 percent in the first two weeks of this year compared to the same period in 2021.

There have been 96 incidents in the transit system in 2022, compared to the 58 recorded last year, the data showed.