Woman charged with murder in NY subway shove death
NEW YORK (AP) - A woman accused of pushing a man to his death in front of a subway train was charged Saturday with murder as a hate crime.
Police arrested Erica Menendez on Saturday after a passer-by on a street noticed she resembled the woman seen in a surveillance video.
A spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said Menendez told authorities she hates Hindus and Muslims.
Subway shoving victim Sunando Sen was from India, but it's unclear if he was Muslim or Hindu.
Sen, who lived in Queens and ran a printing shop, was killed Thursday night. Witnesses said a muttering woman pushed him on the tracks as a 7 train entered a Queens station and then ran off.
Menendez was in custody Saturday and couldn't be reached for comment. It was unclear if she had an attorney.
It was unclear whether the woman who pushed Sen had any connection to him. Witnesses told police the two hadn't interacted on the platform as they waited for the 7 train, which runs between Manhattan and Queens.
Police released security camera video showing the woman running from the station where Sen was killed.
On Saturday, a passer-by noticed a woman who resembled the woman in the video and called 911l. Police responded and confirmed her identity and took her to a police station, where she made statements implicating herself in the crime, police spokesman Paul Browne said.
The attack was the second time this month that a man was pushed to his death in a city subway station. A homeless man was arrested in early December and accused of shoving a man in front of a train in Times Square. He claimed he acted in self-defense and is awaiting trial.
Police arrested Erica Menendez on Saturday after a passer-by on a street noticed she resembled the woman seen in a surveillance video.
A spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said Menendez told authorities she hates Hindus and Muslims.
Subway shoving victim Sunando Sen was from India, but it's unclear if he was Muslim or Hindu.
Sen, who lived in Queens and ran a printing shop, was killed Thursday night. Witnesses said a muttering woman pushed him on the tracks as a 7 train entered a Queens station and then ran off.
Menendez was in custody Saturday and couldn't be reached for comment. It was unclear if she had an attorney.
It was unclear whether the woman who pushed Sen had any connection to him. Witnesses told police the two hadn't interacted on the platform as they waited for the 7 train, which runs between Manhattan and Queens.
Police released security camera video showing the woman running from the station where Sen was killed.
On Saturday, a passer-by noticed a woman who resembled the woman in the video and called 911l. Police responded and confirmed her identity and took her to a police station, where she made statements implicating herself in the crime, police spokesman Paul Browne said.
The attack was the second time this month that a man was pushed to his death in a city subway station. A homeless man was arrested in early December and accused of shoving a man in front of a train in Times Square. He claimed he acted in self-defense and is awaiting trial.
Not a crazy person, not a homeless person, just a stupid person who bought into the right wing hate machine against foreign looking people, immigrants, Muslims, etc.Â
@lakeview I am right wing and I don't hate Muslims/Hindus. Seems like maybe you buy into the typical left wing hate for normal people who don't want to live their life as hard working Americans and have to support people like you who think they deserve something for nothing.
 @me and you  @lakeview "I am right wing and I don't hate Muslims/Hindus."
Good for you.
Maybe you should explain how that works to "Iconclast" posting below...
An earlier report about this woman stated that she was "mumbling to herself" before pushing that poor man off the subway landing. If accurate, certainly sounds like a schizophrenic street person enjoying her right not to be involuntarily medicated or committed. Yet another death resulting from ACLU extremism.
@Iconoclast  Yet another comment blaming the ACLU for something it had nothing to do with.Â
 @lakeview Bruce Ennis.  Look him up.
 @virtual anomaly  @belsnickles "we should lock up people who are odd"
Well that would put a kink in Romney's plans to run again...
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@belsnickles But how do you force someone to take meds without locking them up? If someone is non-violent how can you take away their most basic freedom and imprison them?
 @belsnickles  @virtual anomaly Yet committing them and medicating them isn't "free" either.  Who's supposed to pay for their treatment?
 @virtual anomaly  @belsnickles Bruce Ennis fought to make it extremely difficult to involuntarily commit the mentally ill.  There are several local examples of untreated schizophrenics who were not violent before killing someone.
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 I am implying that we are not doing these individuals any favors by letting them roam the streets unmedicated.  It is both unsafe for them and potentially disastrous for those around them.  The mentally ill are now "free" to refuse their meds and to live on the streets - what kind of existence is that for THEM??
@belsnickles Bruce Ennis fought for the rights of NON VIOLENT mental health patients. Are you implying that we should lock up people who are odd but don't seem to pose any physical threat to anybody??
Let me guess: She has a long history of "mental health issues." Â I made my son (who has to take the subways every day to get to and from work) promise to be aware of his surroundings, look behind him as he's walking, and stand with his back to something if at all possible. Â How sad is it when we have to constantly act like antelopes on the Serengeti to protect ourselves from the lions in our midst?
 @belsnickles Love the analogy. Sad, but you are so right.Â
It'll sadly, probably be for not - by most accounts, the woman is yet another poster child for mental illness run amouk.