Subway riders tell News 12 they are worried about safety and security at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station after a group yelled racial slurs and threw a banana at a Black teen they beat up. Police said Monday morning that the 16-year-old boy was kicked, punched and robbed of his sneakers by a group. Community leaders tell News 12 the attackers were Uzbekistan teens, and that the victim was on his way to school when the incident happened. They also said a good Samaritan intervened and called 911. Police say they arrested a 16-year-old, who is charged with robbery and gang assault as hate crimes. The Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating as police search for the other people involved in this assault. This incident comes as a string of incidents at this same station involving teens. On Tuesday, police said a 16-year-old reported being harassed by four people at the station, one of them armed with a machete. On Wednesday, a teen was stabbed in the leg on a D train after getting into a verbal dispute with three teens.

Operation H.O.O.D. (Helping Our Own Develop) says these incidents likely connected to a years-long feud between African American and Uzbekistan teens from local high schools. "It could be a catastrophe if we do not get in front," said Derick Latif Scott, director of Operation H.O.O.D. "It is going to be a race war." Latif Scott said his organization works with Coney Island teens to prevent violence. He said their "Safe Passage Program," which aims to reduce violence between teens traveling to and from school, stopped last year after funding was cut. He believes it is one of the solutions that could help curb the violence. "Everybody's asking we need to we need to safe passage," Latif Scott said. "We need that funding for the schools."