String of violent attacks on Metro trains involving youths raising concern

WASHINGTON - It is the third known assault on a Metro train in recent days. A 15-year-old boy and two of his friends were randomly attacked and badly beaten on New Year's Day.

One of the victim's mother is sharing her story with FOX 5 and a city official is voicing his outrage.

"You're sitting there and you just get sucker punched," said the mother of the 15-year-old victim.

This woman's son and his two friends said they were the victims of an unexpected and unprovoked attack by a group of eight unknown teenagers.

"All three of them said they put their arms up trying to protect their face," said the mother.

The train came to a stop at the Shaw-Howard U Metro station as the teens were left bleeding and their faces battered on a day they were hoping to spend at the mall. Instead, they ended up at Children's National Medical Center.

"They could tell that these kids were visibly older, bigger than them and all they could do was just basically sit there," said the victim's mother. "They were actually all hit in the face. It wasn't like body shots or anything like that."

Just five days before, a 19-year-old was left lying on the platform at the Pentagon City Metro station after being sucker-punched in front of witnesses who were able to take pictures of the alleged aggressor on their cellphone.

"People don't feel safe and we're having these incidents," said D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2). "If we have roaming groups of youths attacking people, that's unacceptable and something we have to put to a stop."

Metro did not release the details of these most recent attacks until FOX 5 made calls.

"The public has the right to know," said Evans. "We should let the public know and Metro doesn't have a good record on that."

FOX 5 asked the transit agency if they could explain why these attacks are happening and if there appears to be a trend in random, unprovoked attacks at the hands of juveniles. A Metro spokesperson would not explain and referred FOX 5 to an unrelated press conference.