A prosecutor says the man who fatally stabbed an attacker on a New York subway will not face charges

NEW YORK (AP) – A man who was attacked on a New York subway and fatally stabbed one of his attackers will not face criminal charges, a prosecutor said, as four men face assault and robbery charges.

Prosecutors said the 69-year-old man was sleeping on a train in Queens in the early morning hours of Dec. 22 when a group of men tried to steal his bags. The fight, captured on video, left an unidentified 69-year-old man surrounded by several men and beaten and kicked at the end of a subway car.

The man stabbed two attackers, Stalin Moya and Philipe Pena. Moya, 37, died from her injuries. The attacked man was taken to hospital with abrasions, cuts, contusions and bleeding to the head and face, the prosecutor said.

“The victim was accosted without provocation, and our investigation revealed that he was defending himself while attempting to retrieve his property,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement Wednesday. “As a result, my office will not be filing charges in connection with the death.”

Katz’s announcement follows a wave of high-profile subway attacks that have unnerved passengers.

The man was charged burning a sleeping woman in Brooklyn that same morning. A man has also appeared in recent weeks pushed onto the subway tracks in front of an oncoming train on New Year’s Eve and a man he cut two people with a knife at the Grand Central subway station in Manhattan.

Authorities said all of the men involved in the fight in Queens, including the 69-year-old man, were homeless.

Four men were indicted by a grand jury on robbery and assault charges: Pena, 26, Henry Toapanta, 32, Oswaldo Walter, 29, and Jose Valencia, 35. Pena and Walter were also charged with attempted gangland assault.

Walter’s attorney, David Bart, said he was waiting to review all the evidence in the case, but it seemed to him that prosecutors were “over-exaggerating” the case against his client.

Lawyers for Pena, Toapanta and Valencia did not immediately return messages seeking comment Friday.