Amira Hunter arrested attacking NYC Subway cello player captured in viral video. Brooklyn woman has 8 prior arrests as victim, Iain S. Forrest continues to refuse to play following incident.
A woman seen on video earlier this month smashing a metal bottle over the head of a cello player as they performed at a NYC Subway station, has been arrested.
Amira Hunter, of Brooklyn, was captured by the NYPD Wednesday evening — 15 days after she allegedly battered Iain S. Forrest, 29, as he performed ‘Titanium’ by Sia at Herald Square.
At the time of the attack the performer had his back to Hunter when he was suddenly battered without provocation. The suspect would be seen in video fleeing immediately after.
Yesterday, I was attacked in the NYC subway. At 5:50 pm on February 14th, while performing at 34th St Herald Square station, a woman wearing a mustard jacket, red scarf, and gloves assaulted me by smashing the back of my head with my metal water bottle. pic.twitter.com/UpSl43yk3x
— Iain S. Forrest, PhD (@IainSForrest) February 14, 2024
Eight prior arrests
Following the attack, Forrest said he was done with publicly playing his music. He said the incident was the second time he was attacked in the past six months.
Hunter is well-known to police, with eight prior arrests. She was last taken into custody in October after stealing $2,050 worth of bathing suits from NYC department store, Bergdorf Goodman, the nypost reported.
In 2019, Hunter was arrested twice for assault, after her mother called police. She also has priors for larcenies and criminal contempt.
Following her arrest on Wednesday, Hunter was charged with assault and remained held at Central Booking pending arraignment.
Hunter was filmed attacking Forrester on Feb. 13 during rush hour at the Midtown transit hub, which had prompted the cellist to stop performing in subway stations all together.
‘I hadn’t touched my cello since being attacked in the NYC subway…until today,‘ Forrest revealed in a X post Wednesday where he showed off some free gifts from a music company.
Musician refuses to entertain playing in public again
The Mount Sinai MD–PhD student said he is still ‘feeling demoralized and saddened’ by the incident that he can’t ‘bring myself to play music.’
Last week, Forrest announced he was suspending his subway performances “indefinitely” and called on the NYPD to protect musicians.
‘Two attacks in less than a year is two too much [sic],’ he said in an Instagram post. ‘I have been punched, choked, and now bashed in the head.
‘I love performing for you all in the subway, but I’m at my breaking point and can’t take more injury or harm,‘ he said.
The musician has been entertaining locals and tourists in subway stations for nearly a decade. He also performed the National Anthem at Madison Square Garden last December.
Forrest participates in the MTA’s Music Under New York program, which schedules musicians to hold performances at NYC transit hubs.
Addressing assault of performers
Forrest and others started a coalition, the Subway Performers Advocacy Group, to demand better security from the city to protect musicians.
While the MTA doesn’t log specific numbers of assaults on musicians in subway stations, Forrest says he believes tracking those numbers and diverting resources can help prevent future attacks.
‘If you talk to any of these musicians, they’ll tell you something similar happened to them. They got assaulted. They got attacked, harassed,’ Forrest said.
Responded the MTA, ‘No one in the transit system, including the musicians, should be subjected to violence, and when the NYPD catches up to the person who committed this senseless attack they will be held accountable.’
Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 25 of this year, when the most recent police data is available, there had been 3,796 assaults recorded in NYC’s five boroughs — marking a slight decline from the 3,802 such crimes during the same timeframe last year.
