“There were other people on the train who witnessed this horrific act, and it may have been stopped sooner if a rider called 911,” the authority said.
MainHed: Woman Raped on Philadelphia Commuter Train as Bystanders 'Did Nothing,' Police Say
Subhead: “There were other people on the train who witnessed this horrific act, and it may have been stopped sooner if a rider called 911,” the authority said.
Social Head: Woman Raped on Train as Bystanders 'Did Nothing,' Cops Say
A female passenger was raped on a Philadelphia commuter train last week as bystanders “did nothing,” police said.
The woman did not know her alleged attacker, but he is known to police and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), according to a published report.
Fiston Ngoy, 35, has been charged with rape, aggravated indecent assault, and related counts, according to Delaware County court records obtained by Inside Edition Digital.
Ngoy is being held at Delaware County Prison. He has not posted the $180,000 bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 25 at 9 a.m. with Judge Harry J. Karapalides, according to the criminal docket.
The alleged victim, who provided police with a lot of information, was taken to the hospital. Upper Darby Police Department Tim Bernhardt described her as an “unbelievably strong woman” who is "on the mend," the Associated Press reported.
The attack happened on the SEPTA El train around 10 p.m. Wednesday, according to police. Officers from the Upper Darby Police Department were called to the 69th Street terminal, CBS News reported.
Andrew Busch, a spokesman for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, told The New York Times that a man authorities say is Ngoy sat down next to a woman at about 10 p.m. on a train that was traveling westbound on the Market-Frankford Line toward the 69th Street Transportation Center.
Ngoy “attempted to touch her a few times,” according to SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch. The woman pushed back and tried to stop Ngoy from touching her, Busch said. “Then, unfortunately, he proceeded to rip her clothes off,” Busch said, according to The New York Times.
Ngoy was homeless and was not armed during the attack, the authorities said, the news outlet reported.
The authorities said the assault lasted about eight minutes, and no passengers in the train car intervened, the Times reported.
A SEPTA employee called police to report that “something wasn’t right” with a woman aboard the train, according to Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt of the Upper Darby Police Department, the AP reported.
The spokesperson said that a “police officer ran onto the train and caught this man in the act and took him into custody,” The New York Times reported.
Video showed other people on the train, according to police.
"Were they watching? I don't know," Bernhardt told the AP. "Again, we're still going through the video but there was a lot of people, in my opinion, that should've intervened. Somebody should've done something. It speaks to where we are in society. Who would allow something like that to take place?"
SEPTA issued a statement and called it a “horrendous criminal act,” the AP reported.
“There were other people on the train who witnessed this horrific act, and it may have been stopped sooner if a rider called 911,” SEPTA said.
