New York City Police Officer Mirjan Lolja turned himself in after police released a video showing a man running out of a Bronx, N.Y., subway station on Dec. 23—the same man who is thought to have assaulted a subway conductor on the platform just moments prior, the New York Daily News reports.
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Lolja has yet to be charged, but there are a number of eyewitnesses, including the bruised subway conductor, who described the incident and how Lolja, who was off-duty at the time, initially tried to get away by train after pummeling the conductor.
The conductor, whose name has not been released, said that Lolja “became irate and belligerent” on the platform when she told him that he would have to wait 20 minutes for the next train because of service changes.
According to the conductor, Lolja demanded that the conductor radio the command center to find out the exact location of the next train, and began to stick his cellphone in the conductor’s face when she wouldn’t reveal her name—as consistent with MTA policy.
“I don’t know if he was doing video or taking pictures, but it was one or the other,” the conductor said. “He was so in my face, when I put my hands up to block him, his phone fell. I went to shield my face because I didn’t know what he was going to do. I just wanted to get out of this man’s way.”
Lolja “was still throttling” the conductor on the platform, the Daily News reports, when a train pulled into the station and he tried to make his escape. However, the subway conductor managed to ask a nearby transit worker to halt the train. Passengers on the train also caught wind of what Lolja had just done and started to chastise him, which compelled Lolja to get off the train and exit the subway station completely.
“I believe the only thing that saved me was the train coming into the station,” the conductor told the Daily News.
“That’s a felony!” the train passengers yelled at Lolja, adding, “You going to jail.”
Lolja turned himself in six days after the incident and said that “the conductor started the confrontation by grabbing his cellphone.”
Read more at the New York Daily News.
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