A woman accused of being a member of the so-called "green goblin gang" that attacked two teenagers on a Manhattan subway train turned herself on Monday and was released Tuesday without bail.
The NYPD said Mariam Issouf, 26, was arrested Monday in connection with the Oct. 2 assault on the northbound N platform at the 42 Street-Times Square subway station.
Two 19-year-old female victims told NYPD officers they were engaged in a verbal dispute with a group of unidentified individuals. As the dispute escalated, the victims were pushed and punched as they tried to enter a train car and had items stolen from them, police said.
The suspects, who were captured on video wearing neon-green bodysuits, fled the location. Both victims sustained minor injuries and refused medical attention, police said.
A mother of one of the victims said her daughter was celebrating her birthday when she was attacked and called the suspects "complete animals."
"All these men sitting there taking videos and watching, and none of them helped while a group of 10 women were beating two young girls," the mom said, according to the New York Post.
On Friday, police identified four suspects as Ciante Alston, Mariam Cisse Issouf, Dariana Peguero, all 26, and 34-year-old Emily Soto. The four suspects live in New York City Housing Authority's Queensboro Houses in Long Island City.
Issouf’s attorney, John Russo, told Fox News that his client did nothing wrong and had merely accompanied some friends to make a video for social media. He said Issouf knew and was friendly with only one of the girls in the group.
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"They all donned green bodysuits so as to be tempting to anyone making a video," Russo said.
He said one or two people in the group had a "bumping incident" with some other people and a fight ensued between two people in their twenties and two 19-year-olds.
"My client was not involved in any fight. When the train reached the next station, she is seen exiting and saying she wants nothing to do with the violence inside the train," Russo said. "She surrendered herself as soon as the police contacted her. As of today, she is the only one to come forward."
Russo lambasted the mother of one of the alleged victims for calling his client and the other Black women "savages" and "animals," saying these are "dog whistles for racists."
