Yara Afaneh was scrolling through her phone on the platform at the Loyola CTA Red Line station Tuesday afternoon when a man approached and said “excuse me miss.”

Afaneh, 23, didn’t look up, but when she noticed he wasn’t wearing shoes she said she got a bad feeling and started walking away. That was when she said the encounter allegedly turned violent.

“Out of nowhere he just punched me in the back of the head,” Afaneh told the Tribune Wednesday. “I still have a headache right now.”

A police spokesperson said the man — later identified as Derek Rucker, 37, of Blue Island — struck Afaneh with a closed fist. He was arrested Tuesday about 1:15 p.m. in the 1200 block of West Loyola Avenue and charged with two misdemeanor counts of battery, police said.

He is at least the second man in rece

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