A homeless man who was captured on surveillance footage beating a woman inside a Queens subway station last week was arrested as a teen decades ago for killing his own grandmother.
The suspect, 41-year-old Waheed Foster, has a lengthy criminal history, including a bust for beating his grandmother to death in 1995 when he was just 14.
The elderly victim, Ariela Mascha, had 20 broken ribs, a stab wound in the leg and a punctured liver, police said at the time.
The brutal attack was sparked over a fight about money, police said then.
He was later convicted in her death, but itâs unclear how long he served.
He was living with his grandmother at the time of her death and later confessed to killing her days after the fatal encounter when he was confronted by detectives about inconsistencies in his story, Newsday reported in 1995.
Last week, Foster allegedly launched at a woman after she ignored him on a train, police said Monday.
The attack happened just after 5 a.m. Sept. 20 as the 33-year-old victim tried to exit the northbound A train at the Howard Beach stop without engaging with the man, cops said.
Foster allegedly chased the woman off the train, attacking her near the subway entrance, cops said.
Judge Denise Johnson ordered Foster held without bail during his arraignment, records show.
The victim told ABC 7 she hasnât slept in a week as her head pounds with pain.
“Do you know how scared I am now? I was never a person to be scared,” victim Elizabeth Gomes told the television station.
She said Foster was incoherent leading up to the attack.
“He’s talking about the devil. He’s talking about a whole bunch of nonsense,” Gomes reportedly said.
Foster was also arrested in 2010 for stabbing a 50-year-old woman in the cheek and shoulder, police sources said. The violence occurred at a mental institution where he punched two other people, according to a lawsuit that stemmed from the incident.
Other prior arrests, including busts for assaulting a woman with a screwdriver, criminal mischief, robbery and larceny, the sources said.
In 2004, he attempted to escape from a transport vehicle while he was a state prison inmate, the Post-Standard reported back then.
Foster has two other pending criminal matters on charges of criminal mischief and minor theft.
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