Suspect beats detained New York woman on subway: sources

Police on Wednesday arrested the suspect who allegedly punched a 60-year-old disabled woman in a Manhattan subway station – after police initially released him after the heinous videotaped assault, sources said.

Norton Blake, 43, was apprehended by the NYPD’s warrant squad around 6:30 a.m. – five days after the attack on Laurell Reynolds, 60, at the West 116 Street and Lenox Avenue train station in Harlem, police sources said.

Blake, who has been arrested nine times — including one in 2017 for assaulting a police officer on a Harlem train station — had charges pending, authorities and sources said.

The massive suspect allegedly struck Reynolds, who uses a walker, with a stick dozens of times around 3:30 a.m. Friday on the head, stomach, leg, arms, back and hands, causing her to fall to the ground.

An MTA employee had called the city’s Rail Control Center — which in turn contacted 911 — while filming the heinous two-minute ordeal, Richard Davey, president of the New York City Transit Authority, said Tuesday.

Disturbing footage of the attack later went viral on the internet, and sources on Tuesday said the NYPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs is currently investigating the response of the police officers who answered the 911 call.

When cops arrived, they spoke to both Reynolds and Blake – and eventually released the alleged thug after the two gave conflicting testimonies about the incident, law enforcement sources said.

Although the responding police officers saw the video, it’s not clear if they saw it before or after they let Blake slip into the wind.

“They should have arrested him!” Reynolds, who is disabled, uses a walker and does not work, told the Post Tuesday in a bedside interview at Harlem Hospital, where she remained in poor condition.

Reynolds said she was hit so hard and so many times that the cane shattered across her body.

“I didn’t deserve that. Not at all, not at all … and I pray to God it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” she added. “You must keep this man off the streets.”

Reynolds’ daughter Lashanne Reese, 41, also took a swipe at police for failing to apprehend Blake at the station – and lamented the fact that no one came to her mother’s aid.

“He could do something like that to someone else’s mother or father because they didn’t lock him up,” Reese, of the Bronx, said Tuesday of officers’ actions.

“That man could have killed my mother… You all did nothing. I have a problem with that,” she said of no one stepping in to help Reynolds.

“He needs help — no, he shouldn’t be on the streets,” said Reese, who works at the Crisis Management System/Bronx Community Justice Center, while breaking down in tears. “He just attacked my mother and hit her with a stick. He doesn’t belong on the street.”

Blake, who sources said gave police a false name when they arrived, was publicly identified as a suspect in the attack by NYPD officials on Tuesday.

NYPD Transportation Director Michael Kemper told reporters the beating stemmed from an argument between Reynolds and Blake as the victim was climbing the subway station steps.

“We are looking for him and I am quite confident that he will be arrested shortly and charged with assaulting this woman,” Kemper said.

Reynolds told the Post that the aggressive suspect barked at her to move.

“I was trying to get my walker up the stairs and a man came down and said, ‘Move bitch, get out of the way,'” she recalls.

“He really started swearing at me,” she said. “Then he pushed me to the ground, hit me with the stick and threw me to the ground…he took my walker and hit me.”

“I’m trying to get rid of him because he hits me and he hits me with this stick and he hits me really hard and everything,” she continued. “He hit me in my head and everywhere and everywhere. It wasn’t anything I could do.”

Blake’s previous arrests — which date back to 2002 — have been for crimes including drug possession, assault, trespassing, resisting arrest, tampering with evidence and possession of stolen property, law enforcement officials said.

He was sentenced to 45 days in prison in 2017 after pleading guilty to third-degree assault for pushing a police officer who was about to handcuff him at the 135th Street subway station.