In another New York City horror, a passenger was pushed into the path of a 1 train at a subway station in Manhattan on Tuesday. A video of the incident, showing a 23-year-old man shoving the 45-year-old passenger onto the tracks, has surfaced online.
The incident occurred at the 18th Street station shortly after 1:30 pm local time on Tuesday. The victim sustained a head injury and was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.“By God’s own hand, he fell perfectly in the trench,” a law enforcement source said, according to a New York Post report.
Video footage
A viral video of the incident shows the suspect walking near the platform edge before the push. He has been described as a ‘maniac’ dressed in a dark hoodie and gray jeans, with no indication that he and the victim were acquainted. The victim appears to be looking at his phone near the track. Meanwhile, two other individuals can be seen jumping the turnstile before the attack in the video. The suspect then pushes the victim and runs away. Shortly after the push, a train passes the station. The two other individuals who saw the incident also ran away from the station afterward by jumping the turnstile. Police have said that the attack appears random.
‘There was a man under the train’
A witness on the train, Violet Paley, described the scene after the train stopped abruptly. “The conductor said over the intercom that we were going to have to evacuate because there was a man under the train,” Paley said. “We walked off the subway, there were a bunch of cops and paramedics and they climbed down to get him. When they got him out I was shocked to see him blinking his eyes and moving his fingers. He was bloody.”
Suspect arrested
Police arrested the suspect near Columbus Circle hours later. He has prior encounters with police, including a 2019 assault charge for injuring an officer and an open case from October involving assault, harassment, and weapons possession. He has not yet been charged in Tuesday’s incident.
Previous subway incidents
This incident follows a recent trend of transit attacks, including two slashings on Sunday and a fatal arson attack on December 22. Recent NYPD statistics show a 40% increase in felony assaults in the transit system compared to the same period last year.
The Guardian Angels have restarted subway patrols, a move criticized by Mayor Eric Adams, who cited increased police presence in the subway system. National Guard members are also deployed in the transit system.
