2 teens arrested after alleged assault aboard Market-Frankford line SEPTA train, police say
PHILADELPHIA - A 27-year-old woman says she was punched twice in the face on a SEPTA train Tuesday evening. She tells FOX 29 she accidentally bumped her alleged attackers when the train lurched.
Cherry Dantes says she boarded the Market Frankford Line at 15th Street around 7 p.m. Tuesday when she was "attacked by children." Dantes, who rides SEPTA daily, says the group of young people began to roughhouse as they got on the train and she stumbled into them as the train jerked forward.
She adds the group told her they wanted to fight and she told them she would not. Dantes also says as the pair got off at the Second Street Station they punched her in the face. She suffered a cut lip and scratched eye during the alleged assault that also broke her glasses, according to police.
The teens were both arrested after another disturbance at the station, police said.
Dantes, who is of Filipino descent, says the pair of alleged attackers did not direct racial slurs at her.
"They did not refer to me as any different from them," she said.
The attack occurred on the same day as a rally was held in Philadelphia by Asian Americans outraged by the attack on a SEPTA train of Asian American students by a group of girls who yelled racist slurs at them.
Dantes says she uses SEPTA to commute and will ride the system again.
MORE HEADLINES:
- Authorities investigating video of attack involving students on SEPTA train
- Ethnic intimidation, assault and related charges filed against teen girls in viral SEPTA attack
- Aunt speaks out after niece attacked on SEPTA subway train while defending others
- Asian student attacked on SEPTA train heads public safety rally
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