Man Who Slashed Woman In W'burg For Denying Advances Arrested

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Police have found the man who slashed a Queens woman in her face earlier this year after she denied his sexual advances on a street in Williamsburg.

Ruben Castro, a 49-year-old from Brooklyn, was charged with second-degree assault and first-degree robbery for the Feb. 3 incident, when he cut a woman as she waited for a Lyft near Boerum and White Street.

The woman, 31-year-old Dana Sagona from Queens, told the Daily News at the time that Castro had approached her as she waited for a car early that morning.

"He said I was pretty, then asked me if I was scared," she said. "I said, 'No,' and then he grabbed me by the neck, maybe the shoulder...I felt like I was going to be raped."

The stranger flew into a violent rage and whipped out a makeshift blade as Sagona tried to get away. He sliced the left side of her face, just narrowly missing her eye, the report said.
Police said Sagona, who was not identified by name in the police report, was later taken by EMS to the hospital for the "large laceration."

The News reported that she needed 44 stitches on her cheek.

Sagona said he first passed by her as she waited on the street, but then doubled back to try and talk to her, she said.

"He looked me up and down again and pretended to be on his phone," she said. "He was saying, 'I'm looking at this beautiful woman. I'm going to marry her.'"

The man ran off with her phone and backpack, including her keys, a MetroCard and a wallet worth $600,she said.