Police: Elderly woman assaulted on SEPTA bus
Police: Elderly woman assaulted on SEPTA bus
FOX 29's Kelly Rule has the latest after police say a woman was assaulted on a SEPTA bus.
NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA - Police say an elderly woman is in the hospital after she was assaulted while riding a SEPTA bus.
"I gave her a huge hug, she started crying, so scared, just crying," says Dana-Gibson Rodgers.
Gibson-Rodgers says her neighbor and family friend, a 69-year-old woman, showed up at her mother's Northeast Philly home on Tuesday night with a broken nose and other injuries to her face. FOX 29 blurred pictures of her injuries to protect her identity.
"I came down and she was standing in my kitchen with a towel to her face just bleeding everywhere," says Gibson-Rogers.
Gibson-Rogers says the woman is a frequent SEPTA bus rider and told them she got on a Route 70 bus on Cottman Avenue and sat next to a woman who asked to not touch her with the bag she was carrying.
She says those words escalated by the time the bus pulled up at Bustleton Avenue around 7 p.m.
"The woman got up and started cursing and just started wailing on her," says Gibson-Rogers.
In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, SEPTA Transit Police released pictures of the woman they say is responsible for the aggravated assault.
They say she boarded the Route 70 across the street from Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility on State Road and exited the bus at Bustleton and Cottman Avenue.
"No weapon was used but the assault was very graphic," says Lieutenant Michael Wright.
Gibson-Rodgers says her neighbor, who she says is short and frail, often picks up trash in the community and leaves gifts at her door for her son. She says she wouldn't hurt a fly.
"She’s a very, very good woman and the fact that she’s sitting there in pain, it makes me angry, I hurt for her, she doesn’t deserve any of this," says Gibson-Rogers. "It’s not right, it’s not fair, she deserves nothing but justice, and I hope that we get that for her."
Anyone with information on the suspect or the attack is asked to contact SEPTA Transit Police.