A plucky elderly woman on her way to a New Year’s Day church service fought back when a violent group of teen girls pummeled her during a botched robbery inside a Brooklyn subway station, cops said.
Linda Rosa, 71 – a retired MTA computer operation worker who lives in East New York – got off a No. 3 train at Hoyt Street just after 6 p.m. and had just passed through the turnstile when one of the four girls tried to grab her purse, she told The Post Friday.
“And then I [said to myself], ‘Oh, no, this is not going to happen today,’” Rosa said.
Then, another teen tried to grab Rosa’s bag too and said: “Oh, you want to fight?”
Rosa continued holding tight to her purse, which didn’t discourage the young would-be robbers.
“The first person kept fighting,” Rosa said. “She punched me in my face and I have my glasses on, and I have a cut on my nose. When she punched me in my face, my glasses flew to the floor.”
“Meanwhile the other young lady was still trying to distract me to get my pocketbook or go into my purse, to snatch something out of my purse,” she recalled.
The teen ended up grabbing a pocket pouch that held Rosa’s ID and medical records, she said.
“I was still wrestling with the first person,” Rosa said. “Then I was trying to kick her in between her legs, but my leg wouldn’t stretch far enough, so I believe that’s when I fell. I fell, and then she stomped on me.”
Rosa said she sensed that the hostile teens weren’t done yet, so she took action.
“I got an impression in me that she was going to stomp me again, but she was going to aim towards my head,” she said. “So I got up right away, and with that, I grabbed her braids and twirled them around my right hand, and then I pulled her down. She had her head down. Then the other young lady said, ‘Let her go.’ And I said, ‘Oh, no, I’m not letting her go.’”
The senior yelled out for someone to help her – when she noticed that the second teen had tossed her pocket pouch to the ground and was coming toward her again.
“So out of nowhere, I grabbed her hair and twisted it around my left hand,” Rosa said. “So I had them both facedown….[like] rams when they’re getting ready to fight.”
The other girls screamed, “Let them go! Let them go!” but Rosa held on and yelled, “I need assistance! I need assistance!”
Moments later, Rosa did let go and started picking up her belongings off the floor.
The startled teens ran up the steps as Rosa told them she was going to call the cops.
Rosa – who retired from the MTA in 2016 after working for the agency for about 42 years – then headed to the nearby Brooklyn Tabernacle Church, where the staff tended to her and called 911.
She was taken to The Brooklyn Hospital Center for treatment.
Rosa said she is thankful she wasn’t hurt worse.
“Thank God they didn’t have no weapons,” she said. “I thank God I didn’t have a heart attack and a stroke and die!”
Her attackers – seen passing through the turnstile in footage released by the NYPD – were still on the loose Friday, but Rosa said she is already granting them some grace.
“I forgive them. They do not know what they do,” Rosa said. “They don’t know what they did. It’s just teenagers acting foolish.”
The attack came during a violent stretch for the city’s transit system that saw a woman burned to death, a man shoved in front of a train and multiple stabbings or slashings.
“It could happen to anybody,” Rosa said of the violence. “Now we’re seeing seniors getting attacked. Anywhere – it can happen anywhere, any station. You could be walking down the street. You could be crossing the street.”
