A homeless woman suspected of brutally attacking a cellist inside a New York City subway station will be released back onto the streets.
Amira Hunter, 23, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the Feb. 13 attack on Iain Forrest, 29, a medical student who was playing his electric cello at the 34th Street Herald Square station.
On Thursday she appeared in New York Supreme Court, wearing a beige jacket with a fur collar and dark jeans, where Judge Marva Brown released her under supervision. Forrest was not present at the hearing.
The judge cited her lack of significant criminal history, despite seven prior arrests, in freeing her on the second-degree assault charge.
In the shocking incident caught on video, a woman believed to be Hunter walked up, picked up the metal water bottle Forrest had left on the floor and smashed it over his head while Sia was playing Titanium.
The bottle fell to the ground as he clutched his head in pain and left the musician fearing for his life. He believes the subway is too dangerous to continue performing.
Amira Hunter, 23, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the Feb. 13 attack on Iain Forrest, 29, inside a New York City subway stop. She was released after appearing in court on Thursday.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Roberston told the court Thursday that the case will be presented to a grand jury next week.
He asked the judge to set bail at $50,000 because the defendant was charged with a violent felony.
“The cellist was playing when the defendant came up behind him and punched him in the back of the head without provocation,” Roberston told the court.
“It caused swelling and pain in the back of his head.”
But defense attorney Joseph Conza said, “I am asking the court to consider supervised release for my client.”
Roberston told the judge that a restraining order was not necessary because the victim and Hunter were strangers, prompting an outburst from the defendant.
“That wasn’t a stranger,” he shouted. ‘What the fuck?’
Outside the courtroom, he told reporters that he knew the victim but did not know why he unleashed the attack.
Judge Brown ordered his release under supervision and he was told to report to a shelter. His next court appearance is scheduled for April 2.
The judge cited her lack of significant criminal history – despite seven prior arrests – in freeing her on the second-degree assault charge.
His attorney told the judge that a restraining order was not necessary because the victim and Hunter were strangers, prompting an outburst from the defendant. “That wasn’t a stranger,” he shouted. ‘What the fuck?’
The cellist who was hit in the head by a stranger wielding a water bottle while performing on the New York subway last week says he is done performing on the platforms.
Forrest announced on Instagram on Sunday that he has formed a coalition with his fellow musicians called the Subway Performers Advocacy Group, but says he will no longer be performing in the underground for the time being.
“It breaks my heart that this is something that has to stop indefinitely, barring some type of systemic change with protections for subway performances,” he said.
The group’s goal is to ask the MTA and the NYPD to track crime statistics against subway musicians so that police resources can be “intelligently allocated where they are needed to prevent attacks.”
Forrest told the New York Daily News that he didn’t understand what exactly had happened to him until the attacker literally punched him.
“I couldn’t get my bearings and it was only when I saw my metal water bottle rolling across the floor and saw the crowd’s face – with amazement, disbelief and shock – that I realized, I think someone just broke my back. head with my metal water bottle,” he said.
Police released video of the alleged attacker to help find him. Hunter, who lives in Brooklyn, was arrested later Wednesday.
He had seven prior arrests, including for domestic violence, two for petit larceny and one for grand larceny, authorities said.
Forrest was playing the electric cello in a Manhattan subway station when he was hit in the head with a metal water bottle.
The medical student and artist was attacked on the night of February 13 at the Herald Square station on 34th Street. Forrest said the suspect fled the station and escaped to a nearby Macy’s, evading NYPD officers.
Video of the attack and the suspect was released and Hutner was arrested about two weeks after the attack.
Forrest worries that he won’t be able to perform on the subway without worrying his loved ones.
‘I have a wife. “I have family and friends who care about me and I don’t know what they would do if I left,” she said.
The incident marked the second time he was attacked while performing in the last year.
A man beat him, strangled him and broke the battery of his electric cello before fleeing with his money and the instrument last May.
Rendell Robinson, 40, was arrested and charged with robbery and remains in a cell on Rikers Island in connection with the case, which is still pending.
Forrest said the MTA assigned a police officer to monitor him for a month or two after the attack, but eventually stopped.
“That’s been happening too much and it’s almost become normalized as an acceptable ‘risk’ for essentially this occupation,” he said. “I think it’s something that needs to be paid attention to and better tracked in terms of numbers and where these things are happening.”
Forrest wrote in X, that woman fled the station and escaped to a nearby Macy’s, where she evaded city police.
“This is the second attack I have suffered in less than a year while performing for New Yorkers in subway stations,” the artist wrote on social media.
‘I don’t think I can keep doing this. I will indefinitely suspend performances on the subway.
He was treated for his first attack at Mount Sinai, the same hospital where he attended medical school.
“No one in the transportation system, including musicians, should be subjected to violence, and when the NYPD catches up with the person who committed this senseless attack, they will be held accountable,” the Metropolitan Transportation Authority wrote in a release.
The incident marked the second time Forrest said he was attacked while performing in the last year.
Outside the courtroom, Hunter told reporters that he knew the victim but did not know why he unleashed the attack.
Forrest is a member of the MTA’s Music Under New York program, which schedules musical performances at transit centers across the city.
He performs under the nickname ‘Eyeglasses’, playing electric cello covers as well as writing his own music.
The musician was discovered playing on the subway and made his debut at Radio City Music Hall with singer-songwriter Josh Groban in 2020.
Two years later, the 29-year-old performed during the New York Yankees’ inaugural game at Yankee Stadium.
In addition to his musical pursuits, Forrest is completing a medical doctorate at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai after earning his doctorate in May.