Man sentenced to 22 years in prison for violent 2022 Queens subway assault on woman
KEW GARDENS, Queens (WABC) -- The man behind a vicious attack on a woman inside a Queens train station back in 2022 was sentenced to 22 years in prison, the Queens County District Attorney announced on Monday.
Earlier in June, 43-year-old Waheed Foster pleaded guilty to attempted murder in the early morning assault at the Howard-Beach-JFK Airport subway station.
"The brutality and random nature of this attack is unconscionable. My office will not allow a small number of violent individuals to undermine the sense of safety for the millions of New Yorkers who depend on the subway every day," said Queens D.A. Melinda Katz following Foster's guilty plea.
Foster's 22-year prison sentence will be followed by five years of post-release supervision.
On Sept. 20, 2022, authorities say Foster approached the victim, Elizabeth Gomes, in the station and tried to start a conversation with her, and then followed her into the station's mezzanine.
When Gomes did not respond and ignored his advances, police say Foster dragged her across the floor and slammed her into the wall, where he repeatedly pounded her with his fists and kicked her about the face and body.
Eyewitness News spoke exclusively with Gomes back then about the attack.
"Do you know how scared I am now? I was never a person to be scared," Gomez said.
ORIGINAL STORY | Woman beaten in Queens subway station describes the pain, trauma
According to police, Foster has a long history of attacking people.
In 1995, law enforcement sources say Foster was arrested for murdering his 82-year-old foster grandmother when he was just 14 years old. Six years later, he was arrested for stabbing his 21-year-old sister with a screwdriver. In 2010, Foster was arrested for attacking three workers at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, where he was an inpatient.
At the time of the attack, Foster was on parole until November 2024.
In her 2022 interview, Gomes said there was no one to prevent the attack and no one on the scene to respond to it.
"Every day is an incident in the subway," she said. "What happened to all these police officers they said they would have there to protect us? There's like nobody to be found. I don't understand."
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