Marc Mathieu, 36, of Bronx Boulevard, Bronx, New York City, New York, United States has been arrested. He was charged with assault.

At around 2:40 p.m. on March 19, 2021, Mathieu was inside the Metropolitan Transportation Authority subway station at Franklin and Varick streets in New York City. He allegedly punched a man named Narayange Bodhi, 68, in the head onboard a northbound No. 1 train, which was nearly empty.

Bodhi, who is of Sri Lankan descent, is also a resident of The Bronx. That day, he was commuting to his security job.

Sitting across from Bodhi on the train was George Okrepkie, 55. The latter is a 9/11 survivor and the chief executive officer of AX Trading, a New York-based company that owns and operates an electronic trading network platform.

“You, you Asian motherf—–r,” Mathieu told Bodhi, according to Okrepkie. The AX Trading CEO told New York Daily News, “I was in a state of shock.”

“It’s an incredibly disgusting attack on an Asian American,” Okrepkie continued. “I tried to go after the assailant but he took off.”

After allegedly attacking Bodhi, Mathieu fled on foot. According to Okrepkie, he took off his scarf, wrapped it around the Sri Lankan-American victim and waited for the emergency medical technicians and the New York Police Department officers to show up.

The Sri Lankan-American victim suffered critical injuries to his head from the attack. Emergency Medical Services removed him in stable condition to New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital in Manhattan, New York City.

Family members of Bodhi told NBC New York that he had no memory of the unprovoked attack. On March 21, 2021, Mathieu was arrested while he was riding on the ferry from Staten Island, New York City to Manhattan.

The Bronx is coextensive with Bronx County, New York. Separated from New York County in 1914, Bronx County is the third most densely populated county in the U.S.

While the native Siwanoy band of Lenape call The Bronx Rananchqua, other Native Americans knew it as Keskeskeck. With a land area of 42 square miles, the borough is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the west and a flatter section in the east.