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A straphanger was slugged in the face by an irate seatmate on a Manhattan-bound subway — but he managed to wrestle the “little b**ch” to the ground until cops could intervene.
Alexander Rakitin, 42, was riding the N Train to his Manhattan finance job Monday morning when he sat down next to 34-year-old Timothy Barbee.
As the train took off, the car jolted causing Rakitin’s knee to jostle Barbee’s — which set the alleged assailant off.
“Apparently my knee touched his knee. That triggered him,” Rakitin told The Post.
“He was just very aggressive. I’m like, saying, ‘Dude, just chill, it’s like 8:30 in the morning. Like, who needs this s**t. Just chill.’”
Footage taken by another straphanger captured the two staring each other down, before Barbee yelled “It’s f**king done, stop staring at me” — and proceeded to tell the protesting Rakitin “make me chill” and “shut the f**k up.”
Their verbal exchange quieted for a moment while they continued to stare each other down, before Barbee said “I ain’t got time to go to jail today.”
Then he smacked Rakitin across the face — sending his glasses flying — before the camera cut out.
“I was able to wrestle him to the ground after that, and just kind of hold him,” Rakitin said. “And the craziest part was that — and this is literally upsetting, like I’m actually emotional about it — people on the train were trying to help him. Like, that was the most insane thing.
“It was also remarkable — he went from acting like such a thug. And then he turned into a little b***h right away. He’s like, ‘I can’t breathe. Please, let me go. Please, let me go. I can’t breathe. Somebody give me some water. I can’t breathe.’ And people started giving him water. That was so insane.”
“People started helping [Barbee],” Rakitin added. “And they were like, ‘Dude, just let him go. Let him go.’ I’m like, ‘Are you crazy?’ Like, if I let him go, he’s just gonna get up and hit me again. Like, I don’t want that.”
Rakitin continued to pin Barbee down until the train pulled into the next station. Once police arrived they hauled the aggressor away.
“They asked me if I want to press charges. I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ Like, this person, he can’t just walk around, punching people,” Rakitin said.
Barbee, a Brooklyn resident with no prior arrests, was charged with third-degree assault.
Rakitin was left with lacerations and scratches to his face, but declined medical attention.
He said the attack should come as no surprise to anyone.
“To be honest, like everybody sees the way the city is — it’s not like it’s changing. I already saw that the city is like this, that you’re in a constant danger of aggression or violent crime,” he said.
“It’s not like it’s changing. It’s just kind of reaffirming that that’s the way the city is.”
