Woman who allegedly attacked 13-year-old at MBTA station held on bail

A Mattapan woman who allegedly attacked and wounded a 13-year-old boy at an MBTA station last week is being held on $15,000 bail, District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced Monday. 

Monica Velez-Caraballo, 35, has been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct. 

The charges stem from an incident that happened on the morning of March 9 at the MBTA’s Andrew station in South Boston, officials said. 

At about 7:30 a.m., MBTA police responded to a report from the station that a juvenile was attacked and that his face was lacerated. The teenager told police he was waiting for a bus with a few friends while a woman was walking around the bus stop yelling obscenities. The victim said he did not know the woman. 

Without any provocation, the woman walked up to the boy and hit him in the face with a soda can that had jagged edges, prosecutors said. 

Shortly after police arrived, the boy spotted his alleged assailant, later identified as Velez-Caraballo. 

“They started it. They threw a chemical on my skin and it’s burning me,” she reportedly told police after being arrested.  

Velez-Caraballo was not suffering from any obvious skin redness or irritation consistent with a chemical burn, officials said. 

Police recovered a ginger ale can with jagged lower edges near the busway at the station. The victim was brought to a local hospital for treatment. 

Velez-Caraballo was also ordered to stay away from Andrew Station and the victim. Her bail on an existing assault case out of Roxbury was revoked by Judge Richard Sinnott, according to Hayden’s office. She is scheduled to return to court on April 6 for a pre-trial hearing. 

“This is an extremely frightening experience for a 13-year-old, or anyone else, who is doing nothing more than waiting at a bus stop with the appropriate expectation of safety and security,” Hayden said in a statement. “I’m grateful for his alertness in pointing out his attacker to police.  These are the types of incidents that degrade our community and we take them very seriously.”