Safety concerns arise after woman says she was sexually harassed at Foggy Bottom Metro Station
WASHINGTON - A woman says she was sexually harassed for nearly 15 minutes at a Metro station while bystanders did nothing to help her.
This is the second time in two weeks Helen Molteni says she’s been harassed at the Foggy Bottom Metro Station.
Metro Transit Police say they’re investigating, but it’s just the latest in a string of sexually-explicit incidents at Metro locations across the DMV.
"I had a really horrible experience on the D.C. metro," said Molteni in a TikTok video.
"And even after two phone calls with the police, I don’t think anyone cares…"
"At the time, there were maybe 20 people within a 20-minute radius and no one did anything," she continued.
Police stop attempted rape at Silver Spring bus station
Molteni, 21, was heading home around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday when she says a man in his 30s started sexually harassing her.
"He ended up making eye contact with me, and he began harassing me, the general typical cat calling," she told FOX 5.
As she tried to distance herself and called the Metro Transit non-emergency line, things only got worse.
"A lot of things to the effect of ‘I’m going to F you, I’m going to do X, Y and Z to you. You slut, you whore,' talking about my body parts, and I was getting really scared and really upset," she said.
Molteni said the man was about 6 feet four inches tall, had a lean build and blonde to light brown hair. He was wearing all black and was carrying an alcohol bottle with him.
With several minutes still to go until her train arrived, she tried to ask bystanders for help.
"Why won’t you help me? Why won’t you stand in between us? Why won’t you ask me if I’m ok? Why won’t you call someone? Most of them looked down at their phones," Molteni said. "The person harassing me noticed this, and he started laughing, and he smirked at me and said no one’s going to help you."
Metro's new general manager Randy Clarke called the incident "completely despicable" via Twitter. "On behalf of Metro, I am sorry this happened," he tweeted.
Last week, police in Montgomery County stopped an attempted rape at a Silver Spring bus station.
The suspect, in that case, was arrested and charged.
Metro Transit Police tells FOX 5 they track all reports of sexual harassment and do have cameras on their buses, trains and in stations.
Following the reports of sexual misconduct near Metro stations, we asked the public how safe they feel.
"Having sexual harassment on the place that I’m using as my main mode of transportation is something very worrisome to me," Alyssa Green told FOX 5.
"I’ve been approached before, but that’s kind of normal living in D.C.," Abby Furman said.
"Personally I haven’t seen any sexual harassment. Some people should stand up a little bit if they see something going on," Danyall Tayyabkhan said.
Kynisha Cole said, "I don’t feel safe, first of all there needs to be more protection."
Metro has released an edited surveillance video from the Foggy Bottom incident. Molteni's complaint appears to occur around the 4 minutes and 55 seconds mark.
In the meantime, Metro Transit Police told Molteni the suspect likely won’t get banned from Metro unless other similar reports are made.
Check out the video below: