Man pushed to death in front of NYC subway train
NEW YORK (AP) — A mumbling woman pushed a man to his death in front of a subway train on Thursday night, the second time this month someone has been killed in such nightmarish fashion, police said.
The man, who wasn't immediately identified, was standing on the elevated platform of a 7 train in Queens at about 8 p.m. when he was shoved by the woman, who witnesses said had been following him closely and mumbling to herself, New York Police Department chief spokesman Paul Browne said. It didn't appear the man noticed her before he was shoved onto the tracks, police said.
The woman fled, and police were searching for her. She was described as Hispanic, in her 20s, heavyset and about 5-foot-5, wearing a blue, white and gray ski jacket and Nike sneakers with gray on top and red on the bottom.
It was unclear if the man and the woman knew each other or if anyone tried to help the man up before he was struck by the train and killed.
On Dec. 3, 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han was shoved in front of a train in Times Square. A photograph of him on the tracks a split second before he was killed was published on the front of the New York Post the next day, causing an uproar and debate over whether the photographer, who had been waiting for a train, should have tried to help him and whether the newspaper should have run the image. Apparently no one else tried to help up Han, either.
A homeless man, 30-year-old Naeem Davis, was charged with murder in Han's death and was ordered held without bail. He has pleaded not guilty and has said that Han was the aggressor and had attacked him first. The two men hadn't met before.
Service was suspended Thursday night on the 7 train line, which connects Manhattan and Queens, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was using buses to shuttle riders while police investigated.
Being pushed onto the train tracks is a silent fear for many of the commuters who ride the city's subway a total of more than 5.2 million times on an average weekday, but deaths are rare. Among the more high-profile cases was the January 1999 death of aspiring screenwriter Kendra Webdale, who was shoved by a former mental patient. After that, the state Legislature passed Kendra's Law, which lets mental health authorities supervise patients who live outside institutions to make sure they are taking their medications and aren't threats to safety.
The man, who wasn't immediately identified, was standing on the elevated platform of a 7 train in Queens at about 8 p.m. when he was shoved by the woman, who witnesses said had been following him closely and mumbling to herself, New York Police Department chief spokesman Paul Browne said. It didn't appear the man noticed her before he was shoved onto the tracks, police said.
The woman fled, and police were searching for her. She was described as Hispanic, in her 20s, heavyset and about 5-foot-5, wearing a blue, white and gray ski jacket and Nike sneakers with gray on top and red on the bottom.
It was unclear if the man and the woman knew each other or if anyone tried to help the man up before he was struck by the train and killed.
On Dec. 3, 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han was shoved in front of a train in Times Square. A photograph of him on the tracks a split second before he was killed was published on the front of the New York Post the next day, causing an uproar and debate over whether the photographer, who had been waiting for a train, should have tried to help him and whether the newspaper should have run the image. Apparently no one else tried to help up Han, either.
A homeless man, 30-year-old Naeem Davis, was charged with murder in Han's death and was ordered held without bail. He has pleaded not guilty and has said that Han was the aggressor and had attacked him first. The two men hadn't met before.
Service was suspended Thursday night on the 7 train line, which connects Manhattan and Queens, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was using buses to shuttle riders while police investigated.
Being pushed onto the train tracks is a silent fear for many of the commuters who ride the city's subway a total of more than 5.2 million times on an average weekday, but deaths are rare. Among the more high-profile cases was the January 1999 death of aspiring screenwriter Kendra Webdale, who was shoved by a former mental patient. After that, the state Legislature passed Kendra's Law, which lets mental health authorities supervise patients who live outside institutions to make sure they are taking their medications and aren't threats to safety.
Yeah, that mental health law keeping nutjobs off the street and on their meds? Doesn't work.
You can thank the ACLU for all of the dangerous mental cases on the streets.
You can thank the ACLU for all the dangerous mental cases on the streets.
Hmm sounds like a good way to create jobs. Have ushers in place to help protect people and ensure orderly entry and exit. They have them in Japan. Might not be the most glamorous job in the world, but in this age of a weak economy would do wonders to boost the economy.
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Obama talks about creating jobs...well maybe something good can come from this senseless tragedy.
 @seattleemt That is an option, putting some kind of barrier between platforms and rails could also help.Â
I lived in NYC and took the subway almost everday. Never worried about this to be honest. Maybe I should have. There were always people standing so close to the tracks, even when express trains would roar by at 40mph.  One mistake and you're dead.  Someone behind you trips and falls into you, you're dead. Crazy. I preferred to stay back until the train started slowing down. Â
 @lakeview so stupid people dont deserve to live?
 @maggie112  @lakeview Survival of the fittest, natural selection, Darwin award winners, whatever you want to call it. I don't think it applies here but society can't be made to feel compassion for accidents that occur due to ignorance. I never feel sorry for people who get killed while walking on train tracks, because it's a quite predictable outcome.
maybe, but they shouldn't be allowed to breed, or to be unsupervised.
Both of the perpetrators sound like they are mentally ill. If so, just add two more victims to the inability of the USA to involuntarily medicate or commit the dangerously mentally ill
really some sort of fencing should be in place by now, come on ! mayor needs a phone call ? what a sick pig.
Most rails in europe have fences and gates. When the lowest bidder runs/operates/maintains the rail such safety measures don't even make the board's final cut to save money/increase profit.
 @komoispropaganda Ummm? I didnt see any in Munich when I visited.
@Jalharad @komoispropaganda  Here take a look for yourself.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_screen_doors
When I was there most rails around the military installations had rails and fairly aggressive door men. It's been a good number of years since I was there. It could be their contractors are just as cheap as ours. Corporate rules are not unique to the US.
Horrid. Â So why can't there be railings around the station area of the platform? Â Perhaps with gates that swing open or chains across until the subway arrives? Â
@DTÂ Â Because that involves common sense and spending our money here rather than giving it away to other countries or spending it on war.Â
 @lakeview its also stupid. Other countries dont have to do this for their rail/subway systems....
@Jalharad  Every airport in the U.S. that I've been to has them for their rail links. SeaTac? Yep.Â
Correct. Pacifist behavior is far more common in Europe, but they have care for the mentally impaired...... good care.