A man who attacked a woman in a little-used SEPTA subway station and threw her on the train tracks has been charged with aggravated assault, robbery, and other crimes.
William Clark, 37, of the 6600 block of Guyer Ave. in southwest Philadelphia, was arrested Thursday for an attack on Tuesday that was captured on surveillance cameras at the Chinatown station of the Broad-Ridge Spur at 8th and Race streets.
Clark has a lengthy criminal history, and arresting officers said he appeared to have mental problems.
SEPTA police chief Thomas Nestel 3d defended the safety record of the transit agency and said Tuesday's attack was "an anomaly."
"We carry up to a million people a day on the SEPTA system, and we rarely have a violent incident," Nestel said Friday. He said the widespread use of surveillance cameras have made it easier for SEPTA police to identify and arrest criminals.
"We're very successful in arresting people," Nestel said. "Hopefully, the bad guys will learn that if you commit a crime on SEPTA, you're going to get caught."
The Broad-Ridge Spur, which runs from Fairmount and Broad to 8th and Market streets, is SEPTA's least-used subway line, and its three stations are often lonely places.
But Nestel said the stations on the line are relatively safe, with no incidents reported in December or January, before Tuesday's attack.
In Tuesday's attack, surveillance footage showed a man waiting by himself on the northbound platform when a woman walked up and sat on a nearby bench. The woman told police the man asked to borrow a lighter.
The woman obliged and then the man grabbed her around the neck, punched her in the face several times, and violently grabbed her off the bench. He dragged her across the platform and threw her onto the tracks.
The 23-year-old victim was able to get up from the track before a train arrived and walk to the southbound track, where she climbed back onto the platform.
The attacker walked out of the station with the victim's cellphone, police said.
Authorities said they did not announce the incident when it happened because they did not want to compromise the investigation by giving a description of the suspect's distinctive red-and-black jacket.
"It was so distinct that we tried to keep the description of that jacket in law-enforcement circles, because it was our best lead on clearing this," Nestel said during a news conference Thursday. "With our partners in the Philadelphia Police Department, we increased the number of officers out on the platform in our stations, and there were many people looking for this person."
SEPTA police arrested the man near 15th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard about 2:30 p.m. Thursday. Nestel said the man was wearing the same jacket, with a distinctive Taj Mahal emblem on the back, and police recovered the victim's cellphone.
Clark was charged with aggravated assault, robbery, theft, simple assault, receiving stolen property and reckless endangerment of another person, said SEPTA spokeswoman Heather Redfern.
Clark's previous criminal record includes a prison sentence for assault, theft, robbery and weapons offenses.
After serving a 7-to-15-year sentence following his arrest in 1996, he was arrested again in 2009 on burglary and criminal trespass charges, but those charges were dismissed, according to police records.
In Tuesday's attack, police said they did not have a motive and they said the attacker appeared to be mentally unstable.
The victim suffered bumps and bruises but was not seriously injured.
The attack comes in the wake of two incidents in New York City in which passengers were thrown in front of oncoming trains and fatally struck.
"It is horrifying, and when you see that happen, you think the worst," Nestel said. "We all know there's a tremendous electrical source down there -- the third rail. If you touch that third rail, you die.
Copyright 2013 - The Philadelphia Inquirer
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
