She is the scarred face of spiraling subway crime.
Sixteen procedures and more than a year after a deranged stranger threw sulfuric acid in her face in a Brooklyn train station, Juanita Jimenez is still trying to heal, inside and out.
The random act of transit violence forever changed her life — and now, with subway crime up nearly 20% so far this year, she’s speaking out about how more cops and mental health resources are needed to restore safety and sanity to the rails.
“I always thought something like this can’t happen to me – I’m such a nice person, it couldn’t be me…[but] it really could just be anybody. We didn’t get into an argument, I didn’t know her, I didn’t have anything with her and it still occurred,” said Jimenez, 22.
Her horror unfolded Dec. 2, 2022 at the Winthrop Street 2/5 station, as Jimenez was getting off the southbound 2 train on her way to her job as a personal care assistant at Kings County Hospital.
An unhinged woman, later identified as Rodlin Gravesande, suddenly and without saying a word, splashed sulfuric acid in her face, according to cops.
“I could tell people to stay safe, but even when you’re minding your business and trying to stay safe, something like this could still happen, which is why mental health is so important for everybody,” Jimenez said. “Most of the time, our abusers and assaulters are people that have mental health and disabilities.”
Jimenez saw Gravesande, 34, of Brooklyn cursing and flailing her arms on the subway and shot video of the crazed stranger before the attack.
“I just had a gut feeling that something was weird,” she said. “But I didn’t think something would happen to me.”
“I felt the pain immediately – it felt like my face was on fire,” she recalled. “I thought it was poison.
“I was panicking and just crying because I didn’t understand why me. It was just a rollercoaster of emotions at that time,” said Jimenez, who spent a week in the Burn Unit at Jacobi Medical Center in The Bronx.
The Harlem native suffered third-degree burns to the entire left side of her face, and parts of her left nostril and lips were destroyed.
“I can’t work, I can’t really leave my home … Everywhere I go people are like, ‘Oh my god, what happened?’ Because my story is on my face,” said Jimenez.
Gravesande — who sources said was previously busted in 2014 in Brownsville for a domestic assault against her child’s father — was arrested about a month after the attack in Atlanta, Ga., and has been held behind bars on Rikers Island on $250,000 bail ever since. She pleaded not guilty.
“I think a minimum of 10 years is what she’s facing . . . But in 10 years, I’ll still be doing surgery, I’ll still be having experiences from PTSD and she’ll be free, which doesn’t feel right,” Jimenez said.
“If there’s literal evidence of a person committing a crime that’s heinous, I don’t feel like they should be out of jail — they’ll just get out and do it again, just like what’s going on right now,” she added, ripping politicians who enable criminals and soft-on-crime bail reform laws which perpetuate the cycle of violence.
“They know that [the subway] is dangerous, and that’s what we need police for, to keep us safe.”
And more cops in every train station during the time when crime was prevalent is also critical, she continued.
Jimenez had to quit her job as a personal care assistant at Kings County Hospital – which she said “would’ve really triggered” her PTSD from the incident – and has amassed more than $60,000 in medical debt from the 16 procedures to repair the damage to her face.
But she remains undaunted.
She has continued her pursuit of a college degree, started a tattooing business, and connected with other burn and assault victims through TikTok, posts videos chronicling her journey to recovery for her nearly 15,000 followers.
“Finally getting my confidence back after surviving an acid attack,” she captioned a Feb. 7 video, which shows a series of pictures and videos of her face since the frightening incident.
Another Feb. 6 video shows Jimenez, with her face wrapped in medical gauze, saying “skrrrt” — a slang terms which means to get away from something — as a hospital employee pushes her in a wheelchair. She captioned the clip: “When you take nothing serious.”
She found her saving grace through TikTok: Los Angeles-based plastic surgeon Dr. Carl Truesdale, whom she contacted in November after watching his videos about facial reconstruction on the platform.
During their consultation appointment, Truesdale – who has a foundation that performs reconstruction surgeries for free – offered to perform the rest of her facial procedures for free.
Under his knife for the first time on Jan. 22, Jimenez received a nose and lip reconstruction, as well as a skin graft.
“When I met [Jimenez], I really loved her story…and I was really happy to do this for her,” Truesdale said.
“I am super thankful for Dr. Truesdale,” said Jimenez, who is healing “really well” following the latest procedure.
More will follow. “We don’t really know how many more are left, it just depends how they go,” she said.
But Jimenez vowed to stay strong — and inspire other victims along the way.
“I want to show to whoever has been through trauma, that there’s so much more to them than that trauma,” she said.
Additional reporting by Tina Moore.
