(Reuters) -The rape of a woman aboard a Philadelphia subway could have been stopped quickly if as many as 10 fellow passengers aiming their cell phones at the attacker had used them to call 911, police said on Tuesday.
The woman was raped shortly after 9 p.m. on Oct. 13 on a train run by Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), which provides public transportation into and within Philadelphia, SEPTA Transit Police Chief Thomas Nestel III said.
“As many as 10 people actually saw some part of the attack on this rider,” Nestel told conservative talk radio host Dom Giordano on Philadelphia’s WPHT.
“We were watching to see if somebody put a phone up to their ear indicating they might be calling 911. Instead, what we saw was people holding their phone up as if they were recording or taking pictures,” Nestel said.
“It may have been stopped sooner if a rider called 911,” SEPTA spokesman John Golden said in a statement to Reuters.
SEPTA and the Upper Darby Police Department, which is investigating the incident, did not immediately confirm other details of the incident reported by local media.
Surveillance video from the train car showed the woman attempted to rebuff her attacker, repeatedly pushing him away as he initially groped her and ultimately sexually assaulted her, local media reported.
Other passengers aimed cell phones at the assailant but no one intervened.
One person finally alerted 911. It was that call by an off-duty SEPTA employee that quickly brought transit police onboard, allowing them to stop the assault and arrest the alleged rapist, SEPTA police told Reuters.
“He was on top of our victim and committing the assault when they entered the train,” Nestel said.
Fiston Ngoy, 35, faces charges of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault and other offenses, local media reported. Ngoy, who listed his address as a homeless shelter in Philadelphia, was held on $18,000 bail and was scheduled for an Oct. 25 court hearing, local media reported.
Ngoy claims the encounter was consensual, but the woman denies that, local media reported.
The assault occurred after the woman took the wrong train at 9:15 p.m. Minutes later, Ngoy boarded, moved to the seat next to her and began trying to touch her, local media reported.
The incident escalated into a rape at 9:52p, local media reported.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Giles Elgood)
