Two teens, ages 16 and 18, arrested after attack on MBTA rider, DA says

BOSTON — Two teenagers, ages 16 and 18, have been arrested and charged for attacking a woman at an MBTA station, dumping her bag of groceries and hurling food in her face in a random assault, the district attorney said.

Saul Diaz, 18, of Jamaica Plain, was charged with unarmed robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement Monday.

A 16-year-old juvenile female, who was not identified because she is a juvenile, was also arrested in the incident and faces similar charges.

Judge Michael Bolden released Diaz on personal recognizance but ordered him on weekday home confinement from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m., for the purpose of attending school, and home confinement without conditions on Saturdays and Sundays.

Bolden also ordered Diaz to not loiter at the Broadway MBTA station.

Prosecutors allege that Diaz and several other youths last week snatched a grocery bag from a woman riding the Red Line, dumped the items and then pelted the woman with them, injuring her nose, Hayden said.

On Thursday, at about 3:38 p.m., MBTA police saw the victim, a 21-year-old woman, sitting on a bench at the Broadway station platform, crying, Hayden said. The victim told police she had been on an outbound Red Line train and saw a group of teenagers arguing with someone. One of the juveniles, a female, turned to the victim and said “What the (expletive) are you looking at?”

As the female juvenile got off the train at Broadway station, she and a second member of the group, later identified as Diaz, pulled a bag of groceries from the victim and dumped its items on the platform. They then picked up items and threw them at the victim, Hayden said.

The victim told police she was hit in the nose with a pear. Police noted that the victim’s nose was swollen and bleeding. The victim was taken to Tufts Medical Center for treatment.

Using descriptions provided by the victim and footage from surveillance cameras, police identified Diaz and the female juvenile. The two were arrested on Friday.

“This is inexcusable conduct that can undermine the public’s confidence in its ability to use public transportation safely and efficiently,” Hayden said. “Public transportation is crucial to the economic viability of our region, and when something like this happens—a passenger being set upon, unprovoked, and wounded in the process—it’s an assault not just on them, but on the entire system.”

Diaz is due back in court on June 21 for a probable cause hearing.

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