Filipina still coping with impact of unprovoked assault in Brooklyn

By CRISTINA DC PASTOR Inquirer.net

NEW YORK

– Three months before chef Cecille Lai and her son were attacked on March 2 by three car-riding youths in Queens, Milagros Dela Cruz Llamas, 70, had an almost identical experience in Brooklyn.

On December 19, 2022, six days before Christmas, she was on the platform of York Street Station near the Brooklyn Bridge at around 8 p.m. She was preparing to take four flights of stairs to go up and walk to her employer’s apartment three blocks down. She walked past an empty police station booth when a “big black guy” pushed her as he passed by. He pushed her so hard Milagros – known as “Tita Miles” in the Filipino community in New York – was knocked down and landed on the station platform. She was lucky to be carrying a backpack that cushioned her back and head from what could have been a perilous fall on the concrete platform.

“I was shaken, terribly shaken. I was trembling,” she said.

The man did not say anything and continued to walk away. There were people on the platform, waiting for the F Train, who witnessed what had happened. Milagros was grateful to two MTA women workers who came to her aid. They helped her going up the stairs as they called 911. They stayed with her until 911 came. One of the women took a photo of the attacker as he was walking away and was able to capture only his back. Milagros said the MTA woman with the camera was also trembling, fearful the man might return. Looking back, she suspected the man may have intended to push her down the tracks. But she was lucky there were train riders who served as barriers.

“The big black guy shoved me so hard. He’s tall. All I remember is his shiny jacket,” she said when reached by The FilAm.

NYPD crime investigators arrived on the scene and took her statement. Milagros declined to seek