The MTA announced Friday that it will be urging the Bronx District Attorney and the court system to bar a suspect from using the transit system for three years. If convicted and a judge agrees to implement the ban, it would be the first since the law was changed in 2020, the MTA said.

Alexander Wright is facing charges of felony assault in the second degree, assault in the third degree and harassment in the second degree for attacking NYC Transit Cleaner Anthony Nelson last Thursday morning.

“No one should go to work looking over their shoulder. No one should have to worry if you’re a public servant, like Anthony and everybody who works for the MTA, to work that you’re going to be targeted and subjected to a brutal attack at your workplace serving the public,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said Friday at a press conference outside the Bronx courthouse. In a press release, Lieber said Wright's history of arrests and violent attacks warranted a transit ban.

Lieber plans on sending a letter to Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark to request that upon conviction, a judge would issue an order to ban Wright from the transit system for three years, the maximum penalty available under the law.

According to officials, Nelson was informed of a man harassing people outside of the Pelham Bay Park train station in the Bronx. When he went to assist riders, he was attacked from the back by Wright.

Nelson had a broken nose and collarbone, but he and another man held Wright until the police came. Nelson had surgery at Jacobi Hospital for his injuries, officials said.

According to a press release from TWU Local 100​, Wright was brought to Jacobi Hospital for an alleged psychiatric evaluation and was in the emergency room at the same time as Nelson.

"He is a humble man. And before coming out here, he said this is not just about me, it’s about the dozens and dozens and dozens of transit workers who have been assaulted on the job in the last several years. This has to stop,” NYC Transit President Richard Davey said outside the courthouse.

"The message behind the ban we are seeking is simple: if you prove to be a danger to New Yorkers, you should not be allowed back into the transit system, period," Davey said earlier on Friday in a statement.

“We are tired of seeing our members get assaulted daily for no good reason,” Tony Utano, president of TWU Local 100, wrote in a statement. “Prosecutors and judges must hold people accountable for their actions and ensure that transit workers can do their job safely.”

According to a press release, Wright has at least 13 prior arrests, some of them within the transit system. He was also arrested three times on the same day, May 10, 2021, for two assaults and criminal mischief resulting in property damage.