Two victims of horrific subway violence say MTA cameras weren’t working during their attacks.
Malfunctioning surveillance cameras in Brooklyn stations this week hindered cops’ manhunt for Frank James, the suspected Brooklyn subway shooter, sources told The Post.
The MTA has been stonewalling since the attack on demands to provide a full accounting of its surveillance system, which is supposed to provide live feeds from 5,100 cameras to the NYPD, with another 5,000 cameras making recordings.
But Chris Anguisaca, who was stabbed in the eye by a crazed man on an A train on Feb. 14, said cops told him subway cameras don’t work north of 190th Street.
Anguisaca, 19, was heading home to Upper Manhattan from work at an Amazon fulfillment center in New Jersey at about 6 a.m. when he saw a man approaching him and a friend hurling insults and calling him “Mexican.”
The trio started fighting and the assailant punched Anguisaca in the face and pulled out “half a scissor,” the victim recalled.
“At first he tried to, like, put it in my throat. He tried to kill me,” he said.
The man stabbed him in the left eye and then fled when the train pulled into the Dyckman Street station. Anguisaca was left blind in the eye.
“This is crazy,” Anguisaca said of this week’s subway attack. “There should be cameras, especially in the train station.”
The NYPD said the investigation into Anguisaca’s attack was ongoing but would not comment on the cameras in that station.
The MTA said the cameras were fully operational.
“Subway system cameras above 190th Street are fully operational as they were when the awful attack occurred February 14th and our hearts go out to the victim while we assist police in bringing him justice,” MTA Communications Director Tim Minton said in a statement. “Anyone suggesting cameras in a particular neighborhood ‘don’t work’ neither has the facts nor is actually inside the active NYPD investigation into this crime, with which the MTA has been fully cooperating.”
Rebecca Lamorte, 30, a disability activist and former City Council candidate, recounted twice being assaulted on the subway — and both times authorities said cameras were out of service.
In 2013, she said, she was getting off the 6 train at 51st Street when — “a woman pushed me.”
“I thought I was putting my left leg on the platform and it was the gap, actually, between the train and the platform. my leg went in, it was crushed between the train and the platform,” she told The Post.
The next morning, she couldn’t walk. Her left leg’s nerves are now “completely ruined,” causing her daily pain and forcing her to walk with a cane, she said.
“I wanted camera footage. I was told that the cameras don’t work there. They’re either broken or there’s no tape in them to record anything,” she said. “I want to know what happened to me. … My life is forever shaped from this moment.”
In 2015, on a 4/5 train downtown, “a man chose to masturbate on me,” Lamorte said.
She was wearing crutches and a brace, and wonders whether the pervert had marked her as an easy target.
Again, no footage.
“I went to the transit police. … I asked for cameras,” she said. “I was told again, ‘Oh no, there are no cameras.’ The office didn’t even have to look into it.”
“Our tax dollars paid to put cameras there, but they’re not being used,” she said.
The NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller downplayed the role of the malfunctioning cameras in the investigation to find James after Tuesday’s attack, saying the MTA provided images from other stations.
City Council members Thursday demanded a full audit of the system.
A 2019 audit by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli found that the New York City Transit division did not perform required preventative maintenance on its security system.
And when problems were identified, repairs were not “timely,” the audit said.
There were 9,920 closed-circuit television cameras and 334 digital video recorders systemwide as of the 2019 audit.
DiNapoli said in a statement that “much needed time was lost” because of this week’s camera system breakdown.
“The MTA has work to do to ensure riders feel safe. At a minimum, that means making sure existing security measures are working. New Yorkers are resilient and will persevere, but they deserve peace of mind that comes from a transit system that puts their safety first,” DiNapoli said in a statement.
