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A TikTok exec randomly slashed in the face by a maniacal stranger who had allegedly already been banned from the transit system said the MTA’s “systemic negligence” is just as responsible for his injuries as the madman.
Gideon Moncrieffe struggles with nightmares, depression and flashbacks from the May 10, 2023 incident, which occurred just weeks after Daniel Penny’s subway chokehold death of out-of-control straphanger Jordan Neely.
Moncrieffe was engaged to the “love of his life” at the time and working as head of global event production for the social media giant when he saw Sean Lewis on the southbound C train in Brooklyn squabbling with an older, drunken rider, and tried to squash the beef, he said in a new lawsuit filed against the MTA.
“I said look, somebody was killed on the train two weeks ago, they were choked out because someone proceeded to be aggressive,” Moncrieffe told The Post after the attack, referring to the Penny case.
Lewis –who has a history of violence including an arrest a month before their encounter in which he allegedly choked his girlfriend and threatened her with a knife — chillingly responded, “Thank you,” and then sliced him with a sharp object from his forehead to his chin.
The horrific assault left Moncrieffe with an 8-inch gash on his face that required 100 stitches to close, according to his Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
It wasn’t immediately clear when and why Lewis was banned from the transit system, but his extensive rap sheet includes nine arrests between 2016 and 2021, including assault and strangulation charges in 2023, sources previously told The Post.
In January 2023, he was accused of shoving his girlfriend in a window. In August 2022, attacked an employee at a homeless shelter, later agreeing to a plea deal which saw him convicted of disorderly conduct.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s alleged negligence was “multifaceted” and made the terrifying attack even worse, Moncrieffe said in court papers.
The conductor locked the train car doors, keeping Moncrieffe in close quarters with Lewis, who pleaded guilty in August to the assault and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
The attack was the “foreseeable result of systemic negligence by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which failed to enforce its own safety policies, respond to emergencies, and protect its passengers from foreseeable harm,” Moncrieffe said in the legal filing.
The MTA failed to take extra steps to keep people safe “despite a documented increase in violent incidents on the subway,” Moncrieffe contended in the filing.
The “profound psychological trauma” has upended Moncrieffe’s once thriving life, he said in the litigation.
His relationship with “the love of his life” has since unraveled and “shattered his personal happiness and dreams of building a life with his partner,” according to court papers.
While some violent crime in the subways is down in 2024, murders have spiked a shocking 60% in 2024 as of September. When Moncrieffe was slashed in May 2023, subway crime was up about 20% compared to 2019, statistics showed.
Moncrieffe doesn’t ride public transportation anymore and finds himself with “persistent hypervigilance,” making it impossible for him to “sleep, focus or engage with others.”
He’s seeking unspecified damages and asking a judge to order the MTA to have “consistent enforcement of its prohibited rider policy,” “sufficient security personnel” and “improved emergency response protocols” along with regular audits of safety procedures.
The MTA said Lewis was not banned from the subway when he slashed Moncrieffe.
“The perpetrator in this case had not been banned prior to this incident… nor would he have been eligible to be banned because of it,” MTA Chief Security Officer Michael Kemper said in a statement. “The MTA has advocated for changes that would give DA’s more latitude to request a ban and judges more opportunity to implement transit bans.”
