Victims recall terrifying attack on Metro train by group of teens

WASHINGTON - Police are looking for a group that attacked and robbed a teenager and a Good Samaritan on a Green Line Metro train back in November.

Metro Transit Police say the incident happened early Sunday morning on Nov. 22.

Joey Cowart and his partner walked onto the train when he saw a group of disorderly teenagers robbing a young boy. He yelled at them to stop, but the group then turned its sight on him.

"One of the girls was making fun of me for being disabled," said Cowart. "Next thing I knew, her hand went back and hit me right on my head. That's when they jumped on me like I was a roach."

His partner, Calvin Lawrence, said they then kicked Cowart in the head.

"The looks in their faces was of joy and that terrified me," said Lawrence. "They were like animals."

Cowart was bruised on his head, body and legs. He said the teenagers shouted gay slurs as they attacked him. The 43-year-old still suffers from the effects of a stroke in 2004 and his partner was terrified for him.

Lawrence stepped in to break up the attack while Cowart reached for the emergency call button telling the train operator, "Help, we're getting mugged."

That happened near the Fort Totten station. For the next four stops, they would start to exit onto the platform, but saw the teens moving from car to car, so they kept riding the train trying to stay out of sight until they arrived at Shaw-Howard U stop where they were finally met by police.

"Why did you have to drive us four, five, six stops just to get us help?" Lawrence wondered. "You have a high crime area. Put a transit cop [there]. I wouldn't want anybody to go through what we went through."

Metro released an image of a person of interest Wednesday night. We have been told she has been identified and detectives are talking with her, but police are still looking for several other teenagers.

As far as the timing of receiving help, Metro said the train operator followed protocol by reporting an altercation to the operations center, which in turn called police.

Metro said officers arrived at the Shaw-Howard U station within five minutes of being dispatched.

The suspects stole more than $700 worth of belongings from Cowart and the boy he was trying to help.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Cowart with his medical expenses after he suffered a setback medically due to the attack. For more information, click here.