An attack on an Asian family on a New York subway is being investigated as a hate crime.

Sue Young, who was visiting the city from Nevada, told WCBS that a group of girls sitting across from her on an F train in Greenwich Village first began pointing and laughing and then escalated to ethnic slurs.

“It was just insult, after insult, after insult. And, finally, my husband felt like he needed to step in and so he was like, ‘Can you use some better words besides those?'” Young said.

Another woman on the train, Joanna Lin, was recording the encounter, and when the girls saw that, they turned their attention to her. One of the girls threw punches.

She ran over, grabbed me by the hair, threw me on the ground and started punching me several times,” Lin said. “And I was like, ‘You know what? Let me protect myself.’ Boxing stance. It doesn’t matter what gender or race, it should never happen.”

Young said she jumped up to defend Lin, and the teen attacked her too.

“My glasses got broken. I’ve had headache for a couple of days now because my hair was pulled and so my scalp was very tender. I got like a whiplashy neck,” she said.

The New York Police Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident, but Young told WCBS said she wants to see something healing come out of it. She said she’d even like to meet and talk with the girls.

“I want everyone to see that we can bridge this, that maybe there’s good in those girls,” she said. “And I want something positive to come out, instead of just throwing them in jail.”

Anyone with any information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website or via DM on Twitter, @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.

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[Featured image: Joanna Lin via WCBS]