Woman With Steak Knife Stabs Attacker on Subway

A woman who was carrying a steak knife for protection has not been charged after she critically stabbed a man who hit her, spit on her and knocked her down in a subway car, police said today.

Lillian Coleman, 23, of the city’s West Oak Lane section, told police that a man made advances toward her Monday night as they waited for a subway at the City Hall station and again after they got on the train, but she rejected him.

The man, identified by police as Robert Green, 20, told Coleman, “I’m going to spit on you,” picked up an object from the car floor and threw it at her, authorities said. Coleman said she warned him, “Leave me alone or I’m going to cut you,” but he attacked her and knocked her down.

Coleman got up, pulled a steak knife from her purse and plunged it into the man’s chest, police said. She told them she carried it for protection.

Police said four witnesses corroborated Coleman’s account, and she was released without charges.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Charles Gallagher said the investigation was continuing and the district attorney’s office had not decided whether to charge either Coleman or Green.

Green had improved to stable condition today at Temple University Hospital after emergency surgery, a hospital spokesman said.

It was the second time in six months that an armed woman wounded an attacker in a subway. In March, Georgia Haugabrooks, 66, of West Philadelphia, pulled a gun and shot a man she said had pushed her to the floor of a subway station. She was charged with assault.