One of two men suspected of punching a passenger at Manhattan’s busy Union Square subway station – which resulted in the victim getting struck by a train – on Monday appeared in court, where his lawyer praised him as a ‘terrific kid.’
Benjamin Gonzalez, 24, of Queens, surrendered to police last Wednesday – more than two weeks after he and another man who has not been identified allegedly attacked Brooklyn artist Francis Christie.
According to police, just before 3am on December 16, Christie was waiting for a Brooklyn-bound Q train at Union Square on his way home from a Christmas party when he was accosted by two men who punched him in the head.
Vicious attack: Benjamin Gonzalez, 24 (pictured in surveillance video, left) is suspected of punching Brooklyn artist Francis Christie (right) on December 16
Christie collapsed to the floor, with his head hanging over the edge of the platform, where the southbound Q train clipped him.
Gonzalez then allegedly pulled up Christie’s battered head and struck him a second time.
Surveillance video at the station captured the two suspects fleeing after the vicious attack.
The victim’s skull was fractured but he survived and was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he awakened later not remembering what had happened to him.
ABC Eyewitness News later reported that the victim has sustained brain trauma and fractures to his eye sockets, and his nose was bleeding profusely.
Surveillance video at Union Square station captured Gonzalez and his alleged accomplice (seen in foreground) fleeing after a Q train struck their victim in the head
A lawyer representing Gonzalez (left) said in court the 24-year-old suspect was ‘one semester shy of graduating college.’ The second suspect (right) has not been named
Christie’s mother, Joy Wells, who lives in Colorado and runs a horse farm, told New York Daily News that more than two weeks after the attack, her son remains at the hospital and the pace of his recovery has been slow.
Mrs Wells was also dealing with the news that her Army veteran husband had contracted pneumonia and had to be rushed to the intensive care unit in Colorado while she was in New York looking after her son, who is also her only child.
The woman recalled that before the December 16 attack, her son was excited about an upcoming art show in Greenpoint, where he was to present some of his latest works painted with a new chrome pen.
Meanwhile, Christie’s alleged assailant Gonzalez appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court, where prosecutors said they have yet to indict him for the subway attack. He faces charges of assault and reckless endangerment.
His lawyer said the 24-year-old suspect was ‘one semester shy of graduating college’ and described the clean-cut, bespectacled young man as a ‘terrific kid.’
Gonzalez remains free on $100,000 bail and he is due back in court on February 21.
Christie, from Flatbush, is pictured with his mother Joy Wells, who has been by his side at the hospital for weeks now