That's pretty much the standard excuse in black-on-white violence.
I find it hard to believe that a white person who was not highly intoxicated would say something like that while using public transportation in Baltimore.
There are vague references to “started the fight” ALONG with “n-word”. Very vague, at least in the follow-up articles at Examiner. Not clear if they mean she did something else and said that, or if just saying that “started the fight”. Someone claimed the man had a knife. But no real coherent story. You’d think with 9 punks they could come up with a continuous solid story between them.