The wife of the Brooklyn subway rider who went off the rails during Thursday’s commute and ended up shot in the head told The Post on Friday she dumped him last year because he was becoming too “aggressive.”
Lisa Sweat, the estranged spouse of unhinged armed straphanger DaJuan Robinson, 36, said her husband had been a construction worker who didn’t exhibit any mental issues when they were together — but that she had to give him the boot because he “changed.”
“He didn’t have any mental issues. We were good when we were good,’’ Sweat said from her Staten Island home.
Then “the last couple of months, he just got aggressive with me, and I let him go,’’ she said of Robinson — who Mayor Eric Adams and top cops said was clearly exhibiting signs of mental illness during Thursday’s rampage.
Robinson was accused of pushing his wife and throwing something at their TV in November 2022 — when she failed to say hi as he entered their Staten Island home, law-enforcement sources said.
At the time, cops were told Robinson had previously been seen with a gun a few months earlier, but it was unclear what the outcome of the report was.
A month earlier, he had been accused of cutting the cords to the family’s washing machine, dishwasher and electric grill during a fit, sources said.
“That was at the end of our relationship — and yes, that was only when he was drinking,’’ Sweat said of domestic incidents between the pair.
“Those couple of times was because of the drinking, and that was my last straw.
“He gets aggressive when he gets mad. It’s only when he’s drinking. That’s the only problem,’’ Sweat said.
“He might’ve been drinking’’ Thursday, she said.
“That’s the only thing I can think of that can make him like that.”
A step-by-step breakdown of what happened in the Brooklyn subway shooting
Robinson had entered the subway system illegally in Brooklyn before the evening rush and targeted a straphanger on a crowded A-train, taunting the stranger, displaying a knife and finally whipping out a handgun as chaos ensued, according to cops and video.
Law-enforcement sources told The Post on Friday that Robinson appeared to have been harassing the stranger because he wrongly thought the 32-year-old man, Younece Obuad, was a recent migrant.
As the pair scuffled, Obuad ended up shooting Robinson four times with his own gun, including through the eye, leaving him critical.
Prosecutors declined Friday to prosecute Obuad, saying it was a case of self-defense.
Robinson’s wife said she was shocked to hear of her estranged husband’s behavior.
“That’s not the Daquan that I know,’’ Sweat said.
“I just can’t believe it — unbelievable to me,’’ said the wife, describing herself as a military vet who served in Iraq and is now working as a bartender and waitress at Applebee’s.
“He didn’t carry guns when he was with me. We didn’t do that,” she said.
“He was working construction. We were in the shelter together. We came up, we got an apartment. We did what we had to do. Then he kind of changed a little bit. But he’s not a bad dude, he’s not a bad guy.
“I would have never seen this coming,’’ Sweat said.
“He was never on medication. I’m so upset … The detectives came to my house. I didn’t know why they were coming here — we’ve been separated for a year now.
“Last time we spoke, it wasn’t a bad conversation,’’ she said, adding that the pair had no children. “He was like, ‘I hope you alright,’ and that was it. That was like last year. It’s been a while since I’ve spoke to him.
“I saw it on the news, I saw the videos. This is crazy. He’s not a bad person, that’s not the person I know.”
Robinson’s mother died from cancer a few months ago, one of her neighbors told The Post.
She said Robinson lived on and off at his mother’s house over the years and would take her to doctor’s appointments.
“He wasn’t that nice of a person,” said the neighbor.
“You would talk to him and he’d say mean things. I felt like he had a mental problem or something. Other than that, I didn’t know too much about him.”
The neighbor, who said she would try to avoid Robinson, recalled cops being called to his mom’s house a couple of times but wasn’t sure why.
Additional reporting by Steven Vago
