73 year old woman randomly attacked on #Bart this AM. Hospitalized with a head injury. Suspect arrested. @kron4news pic.twitter.com/2JMZv4lBUU
— Maureen Kelly (@KRON4MKelly) March 22, 2017
A 73-year-old woman was left bruised, bloody, and lacerated Wednesday when a man on BART randomly attacked her.
KRON 4 reports that the beating occurred at around 4:30 a.m. yesterday, between the Coliseum and San Leandro Stations on a train bound for SF.
The victim, who was headed to work when the attack occurred, was reading a magazine when "a man randomly and repeatedly kicked" her in "the back of her head until she lost consciousness," the Chron reports.
The woman, who KRON says "didn’t see the man kick her, but she had seen him walk by agitated prior to the attack," got off the train at Fruitvale Station and went to Highland Hospital, where she got six stitches on her head.
CBS 5 reports that "surveillance video of the attack was being located" but that it "would not be available to the public."
The suspect in the attack, 23-year-old Wilbert Winchester, was arrested at Coliseum Station at around 5:45 a.m., according to the East Bay Times. ABC 7 reports that a search for Winchester's possible criminal history revealed "a similar case where a transit worker was battered in December."
Winchester was booked Wednesday on suspicion of assault with great bodily injury, the Chron reports. According to the East Bay Times, he "had a 9 a.m. hearing Thursday at Oakland’s Wiley W. Manuel courthouse and was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail at Santa Rita Jail."
The victim, who KRON 4 reports works as a stockbroker, has since been released from the hospital. She says that after 20 years riding BART, the assault hasn't scared her away from the transit agency, but "from now on she's going to sit in the front car near the driver."