Fiancée of man who attacked elderly woman claims he was provoked

According to the suspect's side of the story, he was simply defending his family from a threat. But the NYPD isn't buying it

Dawn Onley

Mar 25, 2019

The fiancée of a Yonkers, New York man arrested for kicking an elderly homeless woman in the face as she was seated on a Bronx train said the brutal attack was in response to the elderly woman threatening to kill her family.

Alicia Cox, 44, insisted that her fiancé, Marc Gomez, 36, is a “sweetheart” and “loving guy” who was provoked by the 78-year-old woman on March 10 after the senior allegedly threatened Cox’s 11-year-old daughter, who was seated beside the woman. The attack was caught on cell phone video and has since gone viral.

“As soon as my daughter lays down, the lady goes, ‘Oh, what are you doing?’ So Marc goes to her and says, ‘Excuse me?’” Cox said in an interview with the New York Daily News. “He turns to her and says, ‘Ma’am I’m not bothering you, I’m not trying to do anything to you. We’re just trying to get home, My daughter is trying to sleep.’ And she goes, ‘Oh, I don’t care, I’ll punch her in the head.’ ”

Cox said Gomez and the woman started arguing and then they all moved to a different area on the train. Cox said the woman kept harassing them and threatening her daughter.

“She goes, ‘I’ll stab you, I’ll kill you.’ And he [Gomez] goes, ‘Who you talking to to?’ Because there’s nobody there, nobody’s over there,” Cox said, according to the Daily News. “First of all I’m getting upset and he (Gomez) sees me getting upset. So he says, ‘Babe, calm down.’”

What made Gomez attack, according to Cox, was when they got up to exit the train at their stop in the Bronx and the elderly woman said to them: ‘Oh yeah, I’m going to stab you.’ I don’t know what she had in her hand but I remember seeing something shiny. I don’t know if it was a knife but I grabbed my daughter’s hand real tight,” Cox told the Daily News. “When she threatened to stab all of us once again, it’s like he (Gomez) snapped because he sensed us right behind him and he snapped.”

He’s a real loving guy. He’s a sweetheart,” Cox added, referring to Gomez. “It’s just that we both agree that he made a bad decision, went about it the wrong way.”

Police aren’t buying it though. Officers dispute Cox’s version of events, saying the attack appears to be unprovoked, according to The New York Daily News.

Video went viral of Gomez kicking the woman as she tried to block her face. While riders videoed the assault, no one stepped in to help the elderly woman. At one point, when Gomez was leaving the train, he looked into one of the video recorders and said, “WorldStar that, my n—a,” according to the Daily News.

EMS treated the elderly woman, who sustained bleeding and swelling from a cut near her eye, according to police.

Police arrested Gomez on Saturday and charged him with assault and harassment. Police received tips from people who identified Gomez from the video.

His bond was set for $30,000 or $15,000 cash when he was arraigned on Sunday.