Police have arrested a man wanted for pepper-spraying a young mother and her baby on an M train traveling through Queens, cops said.
Cops arrested Edward Vargas, 32, around 11 a.m. on Thursday.
Vargas allegedly stomped up to the 25-year-old mom and her 11-month-old baby girl as they were sitting on a southbound M train last Friday and sprayed the woman in her face and arm with the stinging irritant as the train approached the Court Square-23rd St. station, according to police. Some of the noxious spray also hit the little girl in her face and arm.
Police say Edward Vargas, above, pepper-sprayed a woman and her baby on an NYC subway train after the woman had earlier declined his request to use her cellphone. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
The woman told police that, before she boarded the train a few stops to the north, the suspect had approached her and asked if he could use her cell phone. After she declined, they had no further interaction until he sprayed her on the train — apparently having followed her there from the station.
Vargas ran out of the subway at the station after spraying the woman and her child.
Edward Vargas, who allegedly pepper-sprayed a woman and her baby on an NYC subway train, is pictured in police custody leaving the NYPD’s Transit District 20 in Queens, New York, on Thursday, June 26, 2025. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
On Thursday cops escorted Vargas, who was wearing rust-orange velour pants and an orange and green shirt with a palm tree pattern, into a waiting police vehicle outside the 107th Precinct stationhouse.
He is charged with two counts of assault.