Mask-Wearing Red Line Passenger Threatened With Knife: Police

BOSTON, MA — A Boston man was arrested Monday and charged with assault for allegedly threatening another Red Line passenger with a knife near the Downtown Crossing station.

Rafael Perez-Medina, 33, allegedly began taunting another passenger on an inbound Red Line train just before 9 a.m. Monday, according to a news release from the MBTA Transit Police. The 28-year-old unnamed victim told police that Perez-Medina told him he “looked like a duck” with his mask on.

Masks are required on all MBTA trains and buses.

The man told police that he began to argue with Perez-Medina, who then pulled out a knife, with its blade fully displayed, and told him, “I’m in the army – I’ll kill you.”

Transit police said that the man immediately left the train and called the TPD. Multiple TPD officers were able to use the man’s description to locate Perez-Medina on Temple Place, a street in between Downtown Crossing and Boston Common.

Perez-Medina was placed into custody for Assault By Means Of A Dangerous Weapon and taken to the TPD headquarters, transit police reported.

All over the country, people have been harassed for wearing masks. In October, a viral TikTok video showed a man hitting the arm of an Asian woman filming a K-pop dance video in Downtown Crossing. The victim told Boston.com that the man walked up to a group of mostly Asian women and asked them why they were wearing masks, then began “talking about Communism and all that stuff.” He then allegedly hit her, before a nearby man stepped in and pulled him aside. The woman did not call the police.