A 30-year-old girl was once in important situation on Wednesday after a person described through police officers as emotionally disturbed driven her right into a shifting subway educate in an it appears random assault at a Manhattan station.
The girl, whom the police didn’t establish, was once at the platform on the 53rd Street/Fifth Avenue station in a while after midday when the person shoved her in opposition to a departing E educate, the police mentioned. Witnesses mentioned the attacker was once speaking to himself earlier than he driven her.
The girl fell onto the subway tracks after her head hit the educate, Michael Kemper, the Police Department’s leader of transit, mentioned at a news convention Wednesday afternoon. “Good Samaritans” helped her again onto the platform, Chief Kemper mentioned.
She was once taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital with a head harm and was once in important situation, police officers mentioned. The police have been in the hunt for a suspect they known as Sabir Jones, 39. Chief Kemper mentioned Mr. Jones was once “known to the department.”
“He’s known to us in the subway system,” the manager mentioned, including that video from safety cameras in the station had helped investigators establish Mr. Jones because the suspect.
The group that gives homeless-outreach products and services at the subway, the Bowery Residents’ Committee, has encountered him a number of occasions as a part of the ones efforts, in step with an individual who was once given get entry to to a couple of his social provider information.
The probability of turning into a criminal offense sufferer at the subway is low, however high-profile assaults have fed fears over the security of a machine this is struggling with to win again riders. Being shoved abruptly on a subway platform in specific is a perennial city nightmare.
Through Oct. 15, there were 15 folks driven off subway platforms in New York City this yr, when compared with 22 in the similar length remaining yr, the police mentioned. Officials may no longer say how lots of the episodes resulted in critical accidents however that lots of those that have been shoved had controlled to scramble to protection.
In May, a girl was once seriously injured after a person shoved her head in opposition to a shifting subway educate on the Lexington Avenue/63rd Street station. The girl, Emine Yilmaz Ozsoy, 35, was once partly paralyzed in the assault.
The remaining deadly subway push happened in January 2022, when Michelle Go, 40, was once shoved onto the tracks on the Times Square station and hit through an oncoming R educate. Martial Simon, 61, a schizophrenic homeless guy with a historical past of erratic conduct, was once charged with second-degree homicide in Ms. Go’s dying however deemed not worthy to face trial.
The deadly shoving of Ms. Go caused renewed requires the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subway, to discover putting in the type of platform limitations used in subway techniques world wide to dam get entry to to tracks. In February 2022, the authority introduced plans to check such limitations at 3 stations.
Hours after the assault on Wednesday, law enforcement officials posted at an front to the 53rd Station have been nonetheless turning away folks through the handfuls.
Natalie Tanner, 23, who was once visiting from Ottawa, mentioned she was once to be informed that anyone were driven however would proceed the use of the subway as it was once the least dear and fastest method to navigate town.
“This is like something out of a TV show,” Ms. Tanner mentioned. “It’s unbelievable.”
Chelsia Rose Marcius contributed reporting.