Woman fatally knifes thug in subway attack, then flees on F train

BY Kerry Burke and John Lauinger

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Friday, December 25th 2009, 1:33 AM

Police on the scene where Thomas Winston collapsed after being stabbed.

Costanza for News

Police on the scene where Thomas Winston collapsed after being stabbed.

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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 woman was still in the wind Thursday night, police said. One police source said investigators suspect the woman was acting in self-defense.

Winston has numerous prior arrests, including several raps for sale of narcotics, most recently in September.

Winston's aunt, Diane Greenspan, who has custody of his child, was stunned by his death.

"It's terrible, just terrible - on Christmas Eve!" she said, despairingly.

kburke@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/12/24/2009-12-24_woman_fatally_knifes_thug_in_subway_attack.html#ixzz0ajmOIbKk

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/12/24/2009-12-24_woman_fatally_knifes_thug_in_subway_attack.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1173792&forum_id=2#13644719)

BY Edgar Sandoval, Rocco Parascandola and John Lauinger

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

She's no victim, after all.

A Queens teenager who stabbed a man to death in a subway was facing manslaughter charges Tuesday night after cops said she was to blame in the Christmas Eve fracas.

Cyan Brown, 16, 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 a group of pals, asked the man to apologize, setting off a confrontation that apparently spilled on to the sidewalk in front of a chicken joint.

"You could say excuse me," the slain man said, according to cops.

That's when Brown, who lives in the nearby Queensbridge Houses, got involved in the battle of words.

"She takes over, gets mouthy," the source said.

Moments later, she pulled a knife and stabbed Winston, cops said.

"She reaches in her bag, takes out a weapon, lunges at him and cuts him," the source said.

Winston's friends chased after Brown and tried to drag her off the F train - but she escaped.

Witnesses told cops it appeared the teen was fleeing from a gang of aggressive men.

Brown's mom later told reporters her daughter was protecting herself from the men who tried to fondle her when she stabbed Winston.

Cops also bought the self-defense claim up to a point but after further investigation, they poked holes in that account of the stabbing.

Brown turned herself in for questioning Tuesday afternoon at the 114th Precinct. She is expected to be arraigned today on manslaughter and weapons charges.

"We located an eyewitness to the stabbing," Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said, adding that the witness picked Brown out of a lineup. "As a result, she has been arrested."

Winston was the father of a baby girl.

He was living in a homeless shelter and he was trying to turn his life around, his family said.

Relatives portrayed him as a peaceful person who never should have been killed on his way to get a subway train.

"When you stab somebody in the heart it should be murder first-degree," said his aunt, Diane Greenspan.

"I hope justice will be served."

With Dave Goldiner

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/12/29/2009-12-29_cyan_brown_16_accused_of_stabbing_man_to_death_on_christmas_eve_surrenders_to_co.html#ixzz0bEUaiLHb

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1173792&forum_id=2#13677594)

he had several priors too so its not like he was a choir boy.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1173792&forum_id=2#13677667)

O

L

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1173792&forum_id=2#13678147)

forgive me for not having an ounce of sympathy for this ghetto thug and his family

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1173792&forum_id=2#13679493)

forgive me for not having an ounce of sympathy for white corporate criminals and their families.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1173792&forum_id=2#13681256)