Police: Woman charged after throwing child on train tracks

Police: Woman charged after throwing child on train tracks
Stock photo of police tape. (Carl Ballou/Shutterstock)
The Associated Press
1/29/2017
Updated:
1/30/2017

A woman who allegedly threw a 5-year-old girl onto the tracks as a train was approaching has been charged with attempted murder.

Police in Burlington, New Jersey, went to the light rail platform around 8:30 p.m. Friday after a New Jersey Transit bus driver reported a suspicious woman.

As officers waked onto the platform to approach 20-year-old Autumn Matacchiera, she allegedly grabbed the girl who had been standing with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.

She then threw the child onto the tracks.

The boyfriend quickly got the girl to safety as police jumped in front of the train to signal it to stop.

Matacchiera was taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation.

The child was treated at a hospital for a facial cut and some bruising.