Woman Pushed Onto Subway Tracks Survives

Arrest made in one of a series of platform attacks this week
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 20, 2020 3:55 PM CST
Arrest Made After Woman Is Pushed Onto Subway Tracks
Commuters walk on a nearly empty subway platform in New York in June.   (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

While a 40-year-old woman waited on a New York subway platform Thursday for her approaching train to come to a stop, police said, a man standing nearby was watching, "calculating for the train to approach the station." He then sprinted over to the woman and shoved her onto the tracks. She kept her head down and survived, suffering cuts to her head and body, NBC News reports. "She fell, fortunately for her, between the roll bed and rails, and by the grace of God sustained minor injuries," a police captain said. A 24-year-old man, who is homeless, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and reckless endangerment. Security video recorded the attack. "It's very disturbing," the captain said. A witness said "the conductor stopped the train before it could pull up 100%, and then he came out traumatized—he was like, 'That was a person.'" NBC posted the video here.

It wasn't the only attack on a subway passenger this week:

  • The night before, a UPS worker was shoved onto the tracks at another station after, police said, he refused to give a 24-year-old man money. That suspect also has been arrested. A transit boss thinks the suspects are mentally ill. "There are people in the city who desperately need mental health care," she said.
  • On Tuesday afternoon, a Broadway actor was randomly punched after stepping off a train, per WABC. Alex Weisman was left with two fractures and suffered retinal dialysis in one eye; he had laser eye surgery the next day. No arrests have been made in that case.
  • In a New York Post column, Maureen Callahan writes that New York subway passengers are wondering: "Will today be the day I’m attacked? Will this be the day I’m shoved off the platform into an oncoming train?" Weisman said he won't be deterred from taking the subway.
(More New York City subway stories.)

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