The homeless woman released without bail for attacking a Manhattan subway station cello player only to be re-arrested on shoplifting charges five days later is now cooling her heels on Rikers Island, court officials said Friday.
Amira Hunter, 23, was ordered held on $500 cash bail, $5,000 bond, during her arraignment Wednesday after she was grabbed swiping a $235 Moncler baseball cap from Nordstrom department store on W. 57th St. in Midtown, prosecutors said.
Manhattan prosecutors asked for $10,000 bail. As of Friday, she remained on Rikers Island at the Rose M. Singer Center, waiting to post bail.
The new bust came days after she was nabbed for attacking Iain Forrest, a 29-year-old medical student who was playing his electric cello as part of the MTA’s Music Under New York program, in the Herald Square station on Feb. 13.
The unprovoked assault, which left Forrest convinced that the subway system is too dangerous for him to continue his playing, was caught on video taken by straphangers watching him perform “Titanium” by Sia.
At her arraignment for her attack on Forrest, a judge didn’t set bail, put Hunter on supervised release and directed her to go to a homeless shelter. During the arraignment, she screamed that she and Forrest “were not strangers.” But when asked outside court why she attacked the medical student, she simply said, “I don’t know why.”
Hunter was next arrested about 3:40 p.m. on Tuesday when she was allegedly caught on store surveillance cameras grabbing the hat and going to the fitting rooms. She left the fitting room with the hat stuffed in her handbag.
Store workers stopped her as she tried to exit the store and found the hat in her bag, prosecutors said.
Hunter was charged with petty larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.
During her arraignment on the shoplifting charges, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Robertson asked for $10,000 bail, calling Hunter a “flight risk.” Robertson also mentioned how Hunter was put on supervised release for attacking Forrest and that she has failed to appear in court on three prior arrests.
Hunter lives in East New York, Brooklyn, and had seven prior arrests before she was nabbed for striking Forrest last month, according to cops. Four of the arrests involve domestic violence, two are for petty larceny and the most recent one, last October, is for grand larceny and involves shoplifting, police said.
NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper mentioned Hunter’s new arrest Wednesday as he complained about recidivist criminals being put back out on the street.
“It took detectives a week and a half [to arrest Hunter], but they made the arrest,” Kemper said on NY1 with Mayor Adams by his side. “She had multiple prior arrests, but she also had two active bench warrants for failure to report to court on open court cases and the judge released her.”
“Well, guess what, she was arrested again yesterday in Manhattan,” Kemper added.
