Woman choked, man punched during overnight NYC subway muggings: cops

A woman was choked during a mugging in Penn Station Thursday and a man was pummeled by a backpack thief on a Bronx train, cops said – just days after the NYPD revealed subway crime is up 25% in the past month.

The 23-year-old woman was near the entrance for the A, C, and E lines at 34th Street-Penn Station around 12:20 a.m. when at least one teen came up behind her and choked her while snatching her wallet, authorities said.

Jerico Changluisa, 19, fled but was arrested a short time later, cops said. The teen, who has no prior record, was charged with robbery and strangulation, according to police.   

Police initially said a 14-year-old was also nabbed in connection to the mugging, but hours later had no information on the younger teen in custody. 

The wallet was not recovered, cops said. 

The woman refused medical attention, police said. 

About five hours later, a 33-year-old man was riding a southbound No. 4 train approaching the 183rd Street station in the University Heights section of the Bronx when a mugger approached and began punching him in the face, police said.

When the train pulled into the station, the suspect fled with the victim’s backpack, cops said. 

The straphanger was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in stable condition with a small cut on his face, authorities said. 

No arrests have been made. 

The incidents come as the latest NYPD statistics – updated Sunday – show a more than 25 percent uptick in complaints involving the six major crimes within the city’s transit system over the last month. 

That includes a nearly 60% increase in grand larcenies, which jumped to 91 so far this year, compared to 57 over the same month in 2022, the statistics show.

Year-to-date, however, major crimes are down in the city’s transit system compared to the same time span in 2022, the data shows. 

So far this year, the NYPD has received a total of 578 complaints involving major crime underground, compared to 621 by the same time last year – a drop of nearly 7 percent, according to the stats.