Man charged in ‘unprovoked’ attack of two people at downtown Metro Rail stop

Torrence Donell Brown, 35, was charged with three counts of felony aggravated assault after being accused of separate attacks on unsuspecting Metro patrons on Dec. 31, 2018, and Jan. 10, 2019. See the crimes that shocked Houston's suburbs in 2018 >>> less Torrence Donell Brown, 35, was charged with three counts of felony aggravated assault after being accused of separate attacks on unsuspecting Metro patrons on Dec. 31, 2018, and Jan. 10, 2019. See the crimes ... more Photo: Metro Police Department Photo: Metro Police Department Image 1 of / 48 Caption Close Man charged in ‘unprovoked’ attack of two people at downtown Metro Rail stop 1 / 48 Back to Gallery

Two people are recovering from severe injuries after an "unprovoked" and "hate-filled" attack on a Metro Rail platform, police say.

The man and woman were waiting for Metro's red line train at Main Street and Preston Street around 7 p.m. on New Year's Eve, according to court documents.

Torrence Donell Brown, 35, who had walked onto the platform before the two, walked up to the man without provocation and started beating him over the head with his fists, court documents allege.

The man immediately fell to the ground, where Brown allegedly continued to beat him.

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Brown eventually stopped the attack and began to walk away, Metro police said in court documents. That's when the woman rushed to help the ailing man and started yelling at Brown.

He allegedly turned around and rushed the woman, pulling out a small silver hammer from his pocket and hitting her over the head twice, police said.

Her arms stiffened, and she fell to the ground unconscious, police said. Brown was not on scene when police arrived.

It is unclear why Brown allegedly attacked the two. In court documents, Metro Police Department detectives called the attack "hate-filled and unprovoked," because of how violent and apparently random it was.

Brown is also accused of attacking another man Jan. 10 on Metro property.

He was finally arrested Sunday and charged with three felony counts of aggravated assault for the Dec. 31 and Jan. 10 attacks.

He is being held on $200,000 bail amount for each charge, jail records show.

Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message