Man pushed to death on New York subway

[Fu Xi]

Man pushed to death on New York subway

PETER RUDEGEAIR, REUTERS

FIRST POSTED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012 08:34 AM EST | UPDATED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012 07:02 PM EST

Two men are seen talking on a New York City subway platform in this framegrab from a video released by the New York City Police Department December 3, 2012. According to police, the man on the right pushed the other man (face blocked), 58-year-old Han Ki-Suck, onto the track as the southbound train was pulling into the station. A similar fatality occurred in New York on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. REUTERS/NYPD/Handout

NEW YORK - The death of a man who was shoved in front of an oncoming New York City subway train spurred a police hunt on Friday for the woman seen pushing him, as the second such violent death this month left its imprint on the city’s millions of subway riders.

The woman appeared to be mumbling to herself and pacing, witnesses told police, before she approached the man from behind on the platform of an elevated station in the borough of Queens and shoved him onto the subway track Thursday evening.

She ran from the station to the street in a scene caught on video footage that the police released on Friday as they searched for the unidentified woman, who, they said, was last seen wearing a ski jacket along with red and grey Nikes.

The death in Queens was the second time this month that a New York subway rider was killed after being pushed onto the tracks - a chilling notion for anyone who uses the city’s transit system - and came just ahead of the New Year’s holiday in a city choked with visitors.

“To say that it’s only two in, you know, a long period of time doesn’t help either person,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Friday on WOR Radio 710 AM’s “The John Gambling Show.”

Police said it remains unclear whether the woman being sought knew the victim, who they initially had trouble identifying because his body had been so badly mangled by the train. He has yet to be named.

In New York’s subway stations, some took added precautions Friday, standing a few extra feet away from the platform edge. Commuter Chloe Morris, travelling from New Jersey, said she prefers to sit on a bench rather than stand on the platform while waiting for a train.

“I don’t come close to the edge until a train comes,” Morris said as she waited in the Times Square station. “There’s too many crazy people in the world.”

On Dec. 3, Ki-Suck Han was killed after being shoved onto subway tracks in Manhattan as a train entered the 49th Street station near Times Square. A suspect, Naeem Davis, has been charged with second-degree murder.

Including Thursday’s incident, 139 people were struck by New York City subway trains so far in 2012, 54 of them fatally, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman said on Friday, adding that the tally was preliminary and subject to change.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly indicated the department would not be adding more police to platforms anytime soon.

“We think we are properly deployed in the transit system,” he said at a news conference on Friday.

One solution might be installing safety doors along subway platforms that block access to the tracks until a train arrives, something in use in several major cities around the world, said New Yorker Tom Walker as he waited for a subway.

New York’s subway system, which is more than 100 years old and is one of the world’s busiest, does not have barriers between the platforms and the tracks.

“It’s an antiquated system. Of course people are going to fall in,” Walker said.

 

[Fu Xi]

Woman charged with "murder as a hate crime" in fatal subway pushing

NEW YORK | Sun Dec 30, 2012 3:00am EST

(Reuters) - A woman suspected of shoving a man to his death in front of an oncoming New York subway train was arrested on Saturday and charged with "second-degree murder as a hate crime" in the second such fatality this month for one of the world's busiest transit systems.

The district attorney for the New York City borough of Queens said Erika Menendez, 31, who was seen pacing the subway platform and muttering to herself before the attack, had told investigators that she pushed the victim, Sunando Sen, 46, on Thursday because "I hate Hindus and Muslims."

Menendez was taken into custody in Brooklyn by authorities acting on a tip from someone who recognized the suspect from video of the incident that was aired on television, a spokeswoman for the district attorney told Reuters.

"The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter's worst nightmare - being suddenly and senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train," District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.

"Beyond that, the hateful remarks allegedly made by the defendant and which precipitated the defendant's actions can never be tolerated in a civilized society," he said.

The prosecutor's statement quoted Menendez as telling investigators: "I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I've been beating them up."

Her alleged admission was an apparent reference to the September 11, 2001, attack on Manhattan's World Trade Center by Muslim extremists who flew two hijacked jetliners into the twin towers.

Brown's statement gave no indication of the victim's ethnicity or religion or Menendez might have taken Sen to be a Muslim.

The spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office, Meris Campbell, said she did not believe the victim was wearing any clothing that would have led someone to identify him as being a Muslim.

Menendez is awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on a criminal complaint charging her with second-degree murder as a hate crime, an offense that carries a minimum sentence of 20 years to life in prison. The minimum penalty for second-degree murder alone is 15 years to life, Campbell said.

If convicted, Menendez could face a maximum penalty of 25 years to life.

Witnesses told police a woman appeared to be mumbling and pacing Thursday evening before she approached an unsuspecting man from behind on the platform of an elevated station in the borough of Queens.

She then shoved him onto the subway track as the train pulled into the station, witnesses said. Brown said Sen died of multiple blunt-force trauma.

After shoving Sen on Thursday, the suspect ran from the station to the street in a scene caught on surveillance video footage that police released on Friday as they searched for her.

Sen's death was the second this month of a New York subway rider pushed onto the tracks of the city's more than 100-year-old subway system.

On December 3, Ki-Suck Han was killed after being shoved onto subway tracks in Manhattan as a train entered a station near Times Square. A suspect, Naeem Davis, has been charged with second-degree murder. Authorities have disclosed a possible motive.

Including Thursday's incident, 139 people have been struck by New York City subway trains so far in 2012, and 54 of them died, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman said on Friday. He said the tally was preliminary and subject to change.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins, Brendan O'Brien and Dan Burns; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Peter Cooney and Bill Trott)