Scantling, who was not in court yesterday, faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated and simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime, and reckless endangerment.
The unemployed laborer was arrested late on Sept. 9 at a mental-health facility that he voluntarily entered after he allegedly pulled a ball-peen hammer from a backpack and began hitting Dewayne Taylor.
A SEPTA surveillance camera on the train recorded the assault, and the dramatic video was replayed nationally on network newscasts.
Taylor, 20, a laboratory assistant on his way home from work at 12:15 a.m., was sitting with eyes closed and listening to his iPod when he was attacked.
The video shows Taylor, Scantling, and Scantling's 6-year-old son board the northbound train at City Hall. Taylor sits near the door. Scantling kisses his son and guides him to a seat.
At that point, the video appears to show Scantling reach into a backpack, turn his back to the camera, and begin hitting Taylor.
Taylor rode to Allegheny Avenue and walked to Temple University Hospital, where he was treated.
Scantling's mother, Toni Frazier, has told reporters that her son had been treated for paranoid schizophrenia but had refused to take the prescribed medication. The night before the attack, Frazier said, her son said he was hearing voices.
When her son came home the night of the attack, she said, he told her only that a man on the subway had been after him, wanting to kill him, and that the stranger had a "teardrop tattoo on his face."
Scantling, however, did not tell her about the attack, Frazier said.
Contact staff writer Joseph A. Slobodzian at 215-854-2985 or jslobodzian@phillynews.com.
