Man accused of attacking Asian teens on SEPTA trains taken into custody

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The man accused of attacking two Asian teenagers in unprovoked incidents on SEPTA trains earlier this month has been arrested.

Authorities say Torey Egypt Grier was taken into custody Thursday morning.

The 27-year-old reportedly choked a 17-year-old girl, then threw her to the ground at the Walnut-Locust Station back on September 9.

Four days later, police say Grier punched a 13-year-old girl several times at the City Hall station.

Over the past few weeks, two teenage girls have been attacked on the SEPTA subway system without provocation.

As of now, he is facing assault charges, but investigators are still looking at possible hate crime or ethnic intimidation charges.

Acting SEPTA Police Chief Charles Lawson described one of the incidents as a "disgusting unprovoked attack on a student from Central High School."

"The pattern between both victims were they were Asian students. There was no verbalization between the victims and the suspect at all, so it makes it a little harder to pinpoint a specific reason," said Lawson.