By Minyvonne Burke and The Associated Press -
NBC News
Local authorities are investigating whether passengers who witnessed the rape of a woman last week in a Philadelphia subway car recorded the sexual assault with their cell phones instead of reporting the incident to 911.
The rape occurred on Wednesday night when the woman was traveling on the Market-Frankford line of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) to the city of Upper Darby.
"I can tell that people were holding their phone in the direction of the woman who was being attacked," SEPTA Police Chief Thomas J. Nestel III said at a news conference.
The incident was recorded by security cameras.
A group of trains parked in Philadelphia, on June 19, 2019.Matt Rourke / AP
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A 35-year-old suspect, Fiston Ngoy, was arrested on charges of rape and battery.
Ngoy, who testified that he was on his way to a homeless shelter, is being held on $ 180,000 bail.
It is unknown if he has a lawyer or a public defender.
Nestel said there were other passengers on the train at the time of the attack, but "there were very few notifications to the police."
No one called Philadelphia's 911 phone, although police are still analyzing whether the Delaware County emergency number, which covers the last two stops on the train, was contacted.
In any case, the attack was not reported until an employee of the transport authority saw what was happening.
The authorities defend that the police responded within three minutes of being notified by this worker.
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"What we want is for everyone to be angry, upset and join us in being determined to continue making the system safe. We need the help of the public to notify us when they see unusual incidents," asked the police chief. .
Ngoy and the victim boarded the train at the same stop in North Philadelphia.
According to an affidavit in the case, the man sat next to the woman a minute after going up, after 9:15 pm (local time) and harassed her for about 40 minutes.
During that time, she continually pushed him away.
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Surveillance video shows the man ripping off the woman's pants just before 10:00 p.m., according to the affidavit.
"There were other people on the train who witnessed this horrible act, and it could have been stopped earlier if a passenger had called 911," authorities reiterated.
