The guy suspected of pushing a lady right into a shifting subway teach in Manhattan used to be arrested in Newark and hospitalized, in keeping with two police officers with wisdom of the case.
The suspect, whom police officers have known as Sabir Jones, 39, used to be picked up on Thursday close to the PATH teach forestall at Newark Penn Station after a passer-by identified him, some of the officers stated.
New York subway digicam pictures helped determine Mr. Jones because the attacker who had driven the lady, seriously injuring her as she commuted to paintings simply after midday, Police Department officers stated Wednesday.
Michael Kemper, the Police Department’s leader of transit, described Mr. Jones as an emotionally disturbed homeless guy “known to the department” via a prior arrest and by way of his consistent presence in subway stations.
The unprovoked assault has unnerved a town deeply reliant at the subway as its lifeline. High-profile assaults have fed fears over the security of a gadget seeking to win again ridership that plunged all over the coronavirus pandemic.
On Wednesday, the lady used to be at the platform of the Fifth Avenue-53rd Street station looking forward to an E teach. Mr. Jones approached and shoved her in opposition to a departing teach, sending her onto the subway tracks after her head hit a automobile, Chief Kemper stated. Other passengers helped her again onto the platform and referred to as 911. She used to be in vital situation on Thursday.
Minutes sooner than the lady used to be driven into the teach, Mr. Jones have been screaming obscenities, in keeping with a 26-year-old guy who stated in an interview that the suspect punched him, breaking his jaw. The guy who used to be punched requested to stay nameless out of concern, for the reason that attacker used to be nonetheless at the unfastened when he spoke in regards to the attack.
The guy, a pupil from Queens, have been on easy methods to a library to review when he left an E teach on the station. He noticed Mr. Jones screaming and used to be briefly strolling away when Mr. Jones got here up from in the back of, he stated. Mr. Jones punched him in the left facet of his face and fractured his jaw sooner than fleeing, the person stated.
The punching sufferer ran out of the station and stated Thursday that he used to be in the sanatorium looking forward to surgical procedure. He stated he didn’t see Mr. Jones push the lady onto the tracks, but if he noticed a photograph of Mr. Jones later, he identified him as the one that had punched him. The guy stated he referred to as the police after he heard in regards to the lady’s assault.
Mr. Jones has a historical past of homelessness, psychological sickness and drug abuse, in keeping with an individual who used to be given get right of entry to to a couple of his social provider data.
In November 2021, employees from a company that does homeless outreach at the subway, the Bowery Residents’ Committee, talked to him at a station in Manhattan. The particular person stated he advised them he used the unreal marijuana K2, took psychiatric drugs and have been homeless for 4 years.
A couple of weeks later, Mr. Jones used to be encountered at a station in Queens. An outreach employee wrote that he could be a excellent candidate for a kind of less-restrictive homeless refuge referred to as a secure haven, as a result of he “was able to demonstrate nonthreatening behavior” and “communicated effectively with a friendly demeanor.” Mr. Jones didn’t seem to have long past to the refuge, the individual stated.
According to a bulletin put out by way of the Newark Police Department in March 2021, Mr. Jones have been reported lacking by way of family in that town. In the bulletin, police officers stated Mr. Jones used to be homeless and have been identified with melancholy and psychosis. He used to be identified to sleep in Newark Penn Station and panhandle on a close-by freeway, they stated, and had a prior cope with in Maryland.
On Wednesday, Janno Lieber, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subway, hailed contemporary growth on subway crime but in addition cited the desire for town officers to lend a hand homeless folks out of the subways and into right kind remedy methods.
Although subway crime is reasonably down this 12 months when compared with remaining 12 months and the danger of changing into against the law sufferer at the subway is low, the chance of being shoved whilst on a platform is a perennial city nightmare.
In May, a lady used to be seriously injured after a person shoved her head in opposition to a shifting subway teach on the Lexington Avenue/63rd Street station. The lady, Emine Yilmaz Ozsoy, 35, used to be partly paralyzed.
The remaining deadly subway push took place in January 2022, when Michelle Go, 40, used to be shoved onto the tracks on the Times Square station and hit by way of an R teach. Martial Simon, 61, a homeless guy with schizophrenia and a historical past of erratic conduct, used to be charged with second-degree homicide in Ms. Go’s loss of life however deemed not worthy to face trial.
The deadly shoving of Ms. Go brought on renewed requires the M.T.A. to discover putting in the type of platform boundaries used in subway programs around the globe to dam get right of entry to to tracks. In February 2022, the authority introduced plans to check such boundaries at 3 stations.