A Bronx mother of two who was groped then slashed by an unhinged man on a rush-hour MTA bus called out President Joe Biden and Mayor Eric Adams — saying it’s on them to regain “control” of the city.
Stephanie Aquino, 33 told The Post that her harrowing ordeal had her praying that she’d see her 3-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter again.
“I just started praying saying, ‘God, allow me the opportunity to see my kids and go back home,” Aquino said in a phone interview. “Also, allow me the opportunity, because I’m not going to jail over this guy. It’s not worth it. And protect my kids.”
Aquino was heading home on a crowded Bx2 bus around 5:15 p.m. Friday when she heard another straphanger mumbling “nonsense,” she told The Post in a Tuesday phone interview.
“Once he stopped talking, he touched me on my butt,” Aquino said. “I looked back and he said it wasn’t him. And everyone was looking at him, and I was like, ‘If that wasn’t you, that’s fine.’ I [just] hope nothing happens again.”
Instead of stopping his antics, the creep then tried to slap Aquino, but she backed away from the strike and told the driver what had happened, she said.
“I told the driver, ‘The guy [who is] sitting down there, he just hit me and he grabbed my butt.’ I was saying, ‘Let me off the bus.’ He was saying, ‘I didn’t see him hitting you.’”
Then the lanky menace – who wore a pair of large Bluetooth headphones – flew into a rage and began cursing at Aquino as the bus approached the intersection of East Tremont Avenue and Grand Avenue, she said.
At that moment, Aquino said she could only think of her children at home – and desperately turned to her faith.
“Once I finished my prayer – like I said it [out] loud – he jumped on me, literally all over,” Aquino recalled. “And that’s when the bus driver opened the door. [Then the suspect] dragged me off the bus, he grabbed me [by] my hoodie.
“And I did a flip, a backflip and I fell on the ground,” the injured mom added. “Once I was on the ground, my instinct just told me to get up. If I don’t get up from the ground, he might hurt my head or something.”
Aquino said she initially wanted to chase her attacker – but then decided getting back on the bus was a better plan.
But once she re-boarded the bus, she realized that the enraged attacker had the same idea.
“Everyone was screaming. They said, ‘He’s coming back! He’s coming back!’” she recounted. “I didn’t see the knife first. He stabbed me like around three times, my chest and my belly, everywhere.
“He slashed my face the same way,” she said. “He was so fast. I was nervous. The way he hurt me, it was like he wanted to kill me.”
Aquino tried to fight back – pulling out her pepper spray, but it didn’t work, she said.
“I was thinking about my kids because I have two children,” she said. “Look, my boy, he’s on the spectrum. And he needs me….He just always cuddles me, hugging me. And that was my motivation to go up and fight for my own life because… otherwise I would’ve been more injured.”
Aquino said no one on the packed bus came to her aid.
The assailant then allegedly fled off the bus – where one do-gooder appeared to hit him with a stick, but he still got away.
Aquino was taken to BronxCare Health System and was still in pain this week – suffering headaches – as well as lingering anxiety and fear.
“Every time I [should] be calm, my heartbeats are very fast,” said the woman, a former Florida resident who moved to The Bronx in 2014. “Like [today] I went outside. I was looking around everywhere, like if I see this guy…being aware of it.”
Now Aquino is urging local and national leaders alike to do more to protect New Yorkers – especially adding a larger police presence in the transit system uptown and in the Bronx.
“The president and the mayor have to have control of the city again,” she said. “The city wasn’t like that before.”
Aquino added that she believes the city took a downward turn after several federal unemployment benefit programs initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic had expired.
She also condemned what she said is a revolving-door criminal justice system enabled by the state bail reform laws enacted in 2020.
“I don’t think violent people should be clear to be outside,” Aquino said. “How come violent people are still going outside? They’re getting jail today and then the next day they get released.”
The NYPD released a photo of the still-at-large attacker late Monday night, and described him as between 25 and 30 years old, between 100 and 135 pounds, between 5-foot-7 and 6-foot-2 with a slim build.
He was last seen wearing a black or gray jacket, black and blue jeans, a pink backpack and white sneakers.
Anyone with information on the assault is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
