A 30-year-old man was beaten by the man he asked to put out the cigarette. During the assault, the victim's grandfather was also injured and his 73-year-old grandmother was pushed onto the tracks.
It all started Monday afternoon when Henry Cheng and his grandparents were headed back to Manhattan following a doctor's visit.
On Thursday, he spoke from his hospital room about his injuries.
"I'm having a plate installed in my upper jaw to reconnect it to this area of my face because this whole part is broken," he said.
He is left with broken bones and deep bruises after an encounter with a man on the southbound Clinton-Washington A-C subway platform.
He explained what happened after he asked the man to put out his cigarette.
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"Next thing I knew I got hit in the face and my head started spinning," he said.
His grandfather tried to intervene and was also attacked.
"He suffered a blow to the back of the head when he fell," Cheng said.
But the most difficult for Cheng was seeing his helpless grandmother trying to stop the irate man before she was thrown onto the tracks as a train was approaching.
Cheng and others around him worked fast.
"If I had hesitated anymore to let her run to the express tracks, I'm 99% sure she would've been hit," Cheng said.
He hasn't seen his grandmother since the incident, but knows her injuries are critical. She spent three days in ICU and is still recovering in the hospital.
"She doesn't recognize my uncle, her son, or my grandfather, she can't really speak, she is still in pain," Cheng said.
He said hearing those details is painful for him as well, but he learned a big lesson this week.
"I have realized this is not the right time to say things to people, you don't know how people will react," Cheng said.
The search for the suspect continues and no arrests have been made.
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