New video of NYC subway beating sheds light on vicious attack

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New footage of the savage assault on a disabled woman in a Manhattan subway station captures the hulking brute claiming he was trying to help the victim “with your f–king walker” during the beating.

The lengthy cellphone video – taken by a transit worker and obtained by The Post Wednesday – allegedly shows Norton Blake, 43, beating 60-year-old Laurell Reynolds with a cane, a belt and then his fists inside the West 116 Street and Lenox Avenue subway station early Friday.

After he’s done hitting, smacking, punching and kicking the defenseless woman, the suspect yells at his cowering victim that he was “trying to be a brother” to her, the nearly three-and-a-half minute-long clip shows.

“I was helping you with your f–king walker on the stairs, it just happened to fall down!” he screamed.

“I was trying to be a brother to you!” he continued, before telling her to “shut the f–k up” and whipping her exposed stomach with his belt.

“Call the cops. Call the cops. Call the cops,” Reynolds muttered, over and over.


Video shows the suspect, identified by cops as Norton Blake, hitting Laurell Reynolds, a 60-year-old woman, more than 50 times with a cane in a Harlem subway station just before 3:30 a.m. Friday.
Norton Blake was nabbed by the NYPD’s Warrant Squad early Wednesday, sources said.
via Twitter

An MTA worker who saw the assault called the city’s Rail Control Center — which in turn contacted 911 — as she filmed the ordeal, according to Richard Davey, president of the New York City Transit Authority.

The woman described the attack as it happened, detailing what Reynolds and Blake were wearing, what sort of weapons the assailant was using and if there were injuries, according to the footage obtained by The Post.

“She’s being hit the cane now — and the cane’s broken on her,” the worker said, as Reynolds moaned in the background.

A shorter version of the disturbing footage later went viral online.

Police who had responded to the 911 call around 3:30 a.m. initially cut Blake loose after the heinous attack – sparking an investigation by the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau into their conduct, law-enforcement sources said Tuesday.


Norton Blake is seen in an undated Facebook photo.
Blake (seen in an undated Facebook photo) has nine prior arrests, sources said.
Facebook/Norton Blake

The NYPD’s warrant squad nabbed Blake — who has nine prior arrests — at about 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, and cops charged him with assault, police said.

Reynolds’ daughter, Lashanna Reese, 41, told The Post Wednesday that she was happy the suspect was finally in bracelets — but worried he’d be back on the streets soon.

“I’m glad they caught him, but they can release him, too,” Reese said. “So now I fear for my safety and my mother’s safety because he has family too.”


Subway assault victim Laurell Reynolds, age 60, speaks to a reporter as she recovers at Harlem Hospital.
Reynolds, who was struck so hard and so often that the cane shattered over her body, was still recovering in Harlem Hospital Wednesday.
Robert Miller

Video shows the suspect, identified by cops as Norton Blake, hitting Laurell Reynolds, a 60-year-old woman, more than 50 times with a cane in a Harlem subway station just before 3:30 a.m. Friday.
The vicious beating stemmed from an argument between Reynolds and Blake as the older woman went up the subway steps, a police official said.
via Twitter

Police spoke to both Reynolds and Blake when they arrived, but eventually cut him loose after the two offered differing accounts of what happened, sources have said.

Cops did watch the video, but it’s not clear if they saw it before or after they let the alleged attacker slip into the wind.

“They should’ve arrested him!” Reynolds, who is disabled and does not work, told The Post in a bedside interview Tuesday from Harlem Hospital, where she remained in bad shape.


Video shows the suspect, identified by cops as Norton Blake, hitting Laurell Reynolds, a 60-year-old woman, more than 50 times with a cane in a Harlem subway station just before 3:30 a.m. Friday.
Police initially cut the suspected brute loose after he and the victim offered conflicting accounts of what happened, sources said.
X ( fka Twitter)

“I don’t deserve that. Not at all, not at all … and I pray to God that it doesn’t happen to no one else,” she added. “They need to keep that man off the street.”

Blake’s prior arrests date back to 2002 and include such crimes as drug possession, assault, trespassing, resisting arrest, tampering with evidence and possessing stolen property, police and sources said.

He was sentenced to 45 days in jail in 2017 after pleading guilty to one count of third-degree assault for pushing a cop who tried to cuff him at the 135th Street subway station.

Blake, of the Bronx, was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday.

Additional reporting by Amanda Woods

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