Harsh? Not so fast gentle readers. 16-year-old Cyan Brown was almost gang raped in a wilding attack that began outside a New York restaurant and continued when eight thugs, led by career criminal Thomas Winston, dragged Brown off a subway train she had fled to. Of course being New York this all happened in front of witnesses who did nothing.
Luckily Cyan was able to defend herself, something which the authorities of New York frown upon. From The Daily News:
Several thugs tried to drag a woman off a Queens subway train Thursday night, but she fought back and fatally stabbed one of her tormenters before fleeing on another train, police said.
The large group of men – perhaps as many as eight – surrounded the woman outside a chicken restaurant above the 21st St.-Queensbridge station about 9 p.m., police and a witness said.
The harassment, which may have included unwanted sexual advances toward the woman and grabbing, continued as she entered the subway station.
The woman broke free from the men and frantically ran down to the platform and hopped on an F train, with the thugs right behind.
“They tried to physically drag her off the train, but she fights back,” one cop said.
The struggle continued as the group pulled her off the train and dragged her up the stairs to the mezzanine level.
At one point, the woman stabbed one of her attackers – identified by family as Thomas Winston, 29 – multiple times in the chest.
The woman then sprinted back down to the platform – with the thugs in hot pursuit, said witness Ricardo Josephs, 41.
“Seven or eight of them were chasing the woman,” said Josephs, an MTA employee.
“They all jumped over the turnstiles after her,” he continued. “She got on the Queens [-bound F] train. They tried to grab her; they tried to hold the train – but she got away.”
Winston, who lives in a nearby shelter and has a 10-month-old daughter, was pronounced dead at a Manhattan hospital.
The article goes on to point out that Winston had “numerous” arrests in his past. A follow up story relates that he had faced attempted murder charges. His family, however, claims he was just an innocent bystander, which must be why the teen victim is in hiding:
The 16-year-old girl suspected of fatally stabbing an ex-con lashed out after he and a bevy of men chased her onto a Queens subway train and tried to fondle her, her mother said Friday.
Thomas Winston, 29, and a pack of thugs tried to pull Cyan Brown out of a subway car at the 21st St.-Queensbridge station about 9 p.m. Thursday following an altercation that began outside a nearby chicken restaurant, police and family said.
She fought back and stabbed Winston before she fled on a Manhattan-bound F train, police said.
Winston, the father of a 10-month-old girl,was pronounced dead at a Manhattan hospital.
Although police have not disclosed any official suspects, Brown’s family said detectives have been trying to contact the girl in connection with Winston’s death.
“The guys tried to feel up my daughter and the next thing I know, someone was knocking on my door saying Cyan stabbed someone,” said Erika Brown, 40, the teen’s mother.
Winston, who lived in a nearby shelter, had a long list of prior convictions that included criminal possession of a weapon and selling narcotics and also faced an attempted murder charge, sources said.
But Winston’s cousin Tedra Laws, 31, said he was never in the subway station, but was trying to catch a cab to bring a present to his daughter.
Detectives should be looking for the rest of Winston’s gang, not harassing the family of Cyan Brown. Brown not only defended herself admirably, but she has stopped Winston from victimizing any other women. She is a hero and doesn’t deserve to be treated like a criminal.
Winston, however, got exactly what he deserved.
Update: Cops are claiming that this was an altercation between tow groups and Winston got stabbed after demanding her friend apologize for bumping into one of his. In other words Cyan was a thug and Winston, who was supposedly turning his life around (by traveling the streets with a gang of thugs looking to fight people for bumping into them) died as he lived:
A Queens teenager who stabbed a man to death in a subway was facing charges Tuesday after cops said she was to blame in the Christmas Eve fracas.
Charges were pending against Cyan Brown, 16, who was originally portrayed as a plucky victim who stabbed Thomas Winston, 29, in self-defense after a group of men tried to attack her.
“She was the main aggressor, without a doubt,” a police source told The Daily News.
Brown got into a shouting match with Winston after one of her male friends bumped into him on an F train at the 21st St.-Queensbridge station.
Winston, who was with his pals, asked the man to apologize, setting off a confrontation that apparently spilled onto the sidewalk in front of a chicken joint.
“You could say excuse me,” the slain man said, according to cops.
[…]
Winston’s friends chased after Brown, who escaped into the night.
Witnesses believed the teen was fleeing from a gang of aggressive men and told cops they thought she acted in self-defense.
Brown turned herself in for questioning yesterday at the 114th Precinct.
She will face first-degree manslaughter and weapons charges, Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said.
Hmmm. Like I said in the comments the cops in New York aren’t big on self-defense. Winston and company went looking for a fight and got one from some of their fellow hoodrats. Rather than call an ambulance and try to staunch the flow of blood, or call a cop, when Winston got stabbed his so called friends kept fighting. Since Winston was charged with attempted murder just recently I’m not crying.
Of course, all these people who claimed you can’t trust the cops story when they say Winston may have started the altercation are now claiming the cops are 100% right after sweating a confession out of a teen. A confession that the NYPD was, allegedly, under pressure to get since the story was making the city look unsafe. But whatevs. I don’t buy it but the cops got her to admit to causing the fight which makes the city happy and shuts down criticism of a city that allows gangs of thugs to get out of control.
So did Thomas Winston deserve to die? I’ll let the person he recently tried to kill decide. Is Cyan Brown a hero? Not if she got stabby during an argument. But how is a teen girl and a couple of her firneds the “main aggressors” against eight or nine adults? Not buying it.
Update: If Cyan was the main aggressor who just stabbed Winston out of the blue why is she being charged with manslaughter rather than murder?
NEW YORK (AP) – A 16-year-old girl who said she pulled a knife on a group of men accosting her in the subway, leaving one man dead, has been arrested on manslaughter charges.
Cyan Brown surrendered Tuesday with her attorney after police located an eye witness to the Christmas Eve incident at an F train station in Queens. She’s to be arraigned Wednesday.
Police say others witnesses saw her jumping a turnstile and trying to get on the train before the group grabbed her and pulled her out.
The girl’s family says she was on a trip to a restaurant when a group of men chased her onto a subway and tried to fondle her. Fearing for her life, they say she pulled out a knife. Twenty-nine-year-old Thomas Winston was stabbed to death.
A call to her attorney wasn’t immediately returned.
Sounds like the cops threatened her with a murder rap an forced her to plead down to me.
