Man Arrested For Punching Child On Subway, NYPD Says

FINANCIAL DISTRICT — Officers arrested and charged a man for punching a child on Monday night, police said.

Alex Bienaime, 40, was charged with three counts of endangering a child and assault.

A mother and her 8-year-old son were on the train Monday around 8:30 p.m., police said. When the train pulled in at the Fulton St. station at Fulton and William streets, Bienaime punched the child in the head, police said.

There were no words exchanged during the incident, police said.

The boy, who CBS New York reported has autism, was treated for pain and swelling to his head at NY Downtown hospital.

NYPD Chief of Investigations William Aubry told the Daily News that police are looking into whether the boy was eyeing a bag of potato chips that the man, who police say is homeless, had.

"There's a question as to whether (the suspect) had a bag of potato chips and was the 8-year-old looking at the bag of potato chips, possibly wanting a potato chip?" Aubry told the News. "These are all things that we are looking into and trying to verify with video."