Transgender Woman Pushed Onto NYC Subway Tracks In Apparent Hate Crime

New York City Police are investigating a frightening rush-hour assault on a transgender woman at a Greenwich Village subway station as a hate crime. It ended with her being pushed onto the tracks by a man they say was "acting erratically."

Police say the man demanded to know "What are you looking at?"

A reward of up to $2,500 is being offered for information to find him.

According to the NYPD, the 28-year-old victim was attacked while waiting for a southbound number 6 train at around 9 a.m. Monday morning. She was minding her own business, standing on the platform at the Lafayette and Bleecker Street station, when the man approached her.

WNBC-TV reports that after the suspect said to the victim, "What are you looking at?," he ran to a nearby garbage can, where surveillance video shows him digging for something, then grabbing an empty plastic bottle and running back toward the platform.

Police say he threw the bottle at her, then pushed the woman onto the tracks, and ran away.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the woman was helped back on to the platform and assisted by at least one fellow straphanger until emergency service workers arrived and took her to Bellevue Hospital Center.

Officials said she was treated for lacerations to her chin, along with bruises to her arms and legs, before being released from the hospital. She has not been identified and so far has not come forward.

This morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted a message of support for transgender New Yorkers, along with a thank you to the good samaritans who helped the victim:

The NYPD also tweeted images of the man wanted in the assault.

Anyone with information that can help is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.

New York City has seen numerous attacks of trans women each year, with several cases investigated as hate crimes. In February, two men were charged with assault as a hate crime for a Brooklyn attack on 28-year-old Kimy Hartman that left the American Indian woman with permanent brain damage. Alternately, hate crime charges have been dropped on a technicality for the convicted killer of black trans woman Lateisha Green, and were not filed for the 2013 murder of Harlem black trans woman Islan Nettles.

Mitch Kellaway contributed to this report.