The founder of an anti-violence nonprofit group in Philadelphia has been charged for allegedly attacking a woman on a SEPTA train using a box cutter earlier in July, CBS News reported Thursday.
Operation Save Our City founder Rosalind Pichardo-Kent has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault alongside five additional assault and harassment-related charges, CBS News reported, citing an incident report.
SEPTA officials said Transit Police responded to a reported stabbing on the Market-Frankford Line at 8th Street on July 17, per CBS News. Officers discovered two women involved in a physical altercation, and both had sustained injuries, according to the outlet.
The victim told investigators that during the incident, Pichardo-Kent grumbled about “how rude young people are” and called her entitled for asking a man blocking a platform bench to move, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The woman also alleged that the dispute continued after both her and Pichardo-Kent boarded the SEPTA train, and they “both got in each other’s face and started fighting each other,” the outlet reported, citing an affidavit.
During one part of the altercation, Pichardo-Ken allegedly attacked the woman using the box cutter, who told investigators she felt warmth on her face as well as “a lot of blood,” according to The Inquirer. The assault left the victim with serious cuts on her cheeks and her chest that required 70 stitches and surgery to help her regain muscle movement, The Inquirer reported, citing court documents.
The two women were transported to local hospitals to receive treatment, and Pichardo-Kent was placed into custody, according to CBS News.
SEPTA and Operation Save Our City each did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Operation Save Our City’s mission “is to provide trauma-informed care, life saving skills, education, and basic necessities to people who have experienced homicide[,] grief, addiction, or secondary trauma from exposure to violence,” according to a page on its website. The group also provides “education and violence prevention workshops to young people living in communities that suffer from high rates of violence and homicide deaths.”
Additionally, Operation Save Our City runs Sunshine House, which it describes as a “community hub offering harm-reduction, overdose training, and support for people in addiction and homelessness.”
Pichardo-Kent notably told CBS News Philadelphia during a Monday interview about a recent shooting that took place in Kensington that she finds it “frustrating that not even the SEPTA trains are safe or underneath the SEPTA trains are safe.”
“I’m also speaking from experience, losing many people to gun violence here in Philly, particularly my brother’s case, which is currently unsolved, and also being attacked on Friday on the Market-Frankford Line, which resulted in a stabbing,” Pichardo-Kent told the outlet.
(DCNF)
