Video shows student attacked by man on commuter trolley

PHILADELPHIA -- Police are investigating the attack of a female student by an adult male on a SEPTA trolley that was caught on cellphone video.

The attack occurred on the Route 15 trolley Wednesday morning.

The victim, Shay, is 17. We're withholding her full name at the family's request.

"My nose, I gotta breathe a certain way. I gotta sneeze a certain way. I can't move my mouth in certain directions because it hurts my nose too bad," she said.

She says she had just hopped on the trolley at Broad and Girard for the short trip to school.

"My bag kept bumping this man and he was getting mad that my bag was bumping him. He starting calling me out and getting real smart with me," Shay said.

She ignored him.

But she says the man got up, threatened her in her ear, and ripped her off her hat.

When she saw he had his fists clenched, she tried to defend herself.

"I hit him and he hit me at like the same time. He hit me like three or four times in the face," Shay said.

"He's a creep on a bus full of kids. If the book bag is hitting understand you're on a bus full of kids, it happens," her mother told Action News.

The man fled at 7th and Girard.

Shay's mother then got the call no mother wants - her daughter had been attacked and was on the way to Jefferson University Hospital.

An ER nurse herself, Shay's mother feared the worst and broke down.

"To know that a man hit her, she's a kid. When she called me she was like this grown man just hit me in the face," her mother said.

Shay says she's never seen him prior to the attack.

And while her injuries will heal, Shay and her mother worry about the emotional scars.

"I hope he gets caught and I hope he feels like I feel," Shay said.

SEPTA is working to retrieve better surveillance video of the suspect.

Anyone who may know of the suspect's identity should contact police.