Revere teen held in brutal July 2 Silver Line attack
BOSTON, July 16, 2023 – A 16-year-old girl from Revere was arraigned in Boston Juvenile Court Tuesday on charges that she participated in an unprovoked, sustained attack on a woman riding a Silver Line bus toward Nubian Square on July 2, District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced.
The juvenile was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot) and unarmed robbery. Judge Peter Coyne revoked the girl’s bail for 60 days on a pending assault case and set $300 bail on the new case, along with orders to stay away from the victim and to stay away from all MBTA property.
The girl was one of eight apparent juveniles who participated in the attack, Hayden said.
At about 11:13 p.m. on July 2 the victim, a 35-year-old woman, was observed on video entering a Nubian Square-bound Silver Line car and standing near the back door. Minutes later, a juvenile male is seen walking toward the victim and throwing what appear to be potato chips at her head. The victim is seen turning around to see who threw the chips, and then turned back in an apparent attempt to ignore the juveniles.
Another juvenile is then seen squeezing a bottle of lotion onto the victim’s hair, face and body. The victim moves toward the juvenile in an apparent attempt to prevent him from squirting more lotion. At that point, another juvenile pushes the victim down to the floor, and the other juveniles, girls and boys, join the attack, punching and kicking the victim as she lies in a self-protective position on the floor.
The Revere juvenile is seen on video striking the victim in the head with a closed fist about seven times. She is also seen kicking the victim in the head and face about three times.
During the attack, some of the juveniles are seen opening and rummaging through the victim’s handbag. One of the juveniles is seen taking the victim’s phone and placing it in his pocket.
All of the juveniles exited the bus after it arrived at Nubian Station. The victim sustained a bloody nose and other facial bruising but did not require hospitalization.
MBTA police identified the Revere teenager through video surveillance footage and are attempting to identify the other juveniles involved in the attack. Surveillance shows that the group was at the AMC South Bay Center cinema complex before boarding the Silver Line car. Theater personnel that evening had reported a large group of juveniles causing several disturbances.
“This was a shocking, brutal attack on a female MBTA passenger—utterly unprovoked—and an intolerable assault on the security and safety of our transit system itself. While our goal is to provide options and services to young offenders so their early mistakes don’t short circuit their future lives, our overlying responsibility is to protect the public and to secure justice for victims. I’m grateful for the work by transit police to identify this defendant and I’m confident they will make further identifications of those who participated in this horrendous assault,” Hayden said.
All charged individuals are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office serves the communities of Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop, Mass. The office handles over 20,000 cases a year. More than 160 attorneys in the office practice in nine district and municipal courts, Suffolk Superior Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the Supreme Judicial Court, and the Boston Juvenile Courts. The office employs some 300 people and offers a wide range of services and programs to serve anyone who comes in contact with the criminal justice system. This office is committed to educating the public about the services we provide, our commitment to crime prevention, and our dedication to keeping the residents of Suffolk County safe.
James Borghesani, Chief of Communications