A woman was pushed onto a moving metro train: she is in critical condition
On Wednesday, October 18, a 30-year-old woman was seriously injured after a stranger pushed her into a moving train at a Manhattan subway station, the New York Post reports.
The victim hit her head on an outgoing F train and then fell onto the roadway at the Fifth Avenue/53rd Street station. According to sources, the suspect muttered to himself as he pushed her onto the train.
NYPD Chief Michael Kemper identified the culprit. He turned out to be 39-year-old Sabir Jones, a man with an obvious mental disorder who is still at large. When the woman was unexpectedly pushed by her attacker, Kemper said at a press briefing, someone “immediately” called 911 and other good Samaritans helped pull the victim onto the platform.
It is still unclear what led to the attack. Eyewitnesses are currently being interviewed, and the victim has not yet contacted law enforcement. The young woman, who was returning from work at the time of the attack, was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital in critical condition, police said. According to Kemper, she underwent surgery during which a significant part of her skull was removed.
Investigators identified the attack suspect almost immediately based on video surveillance data installed at the station.
On the subject: A girl was hit and killed by a train on the New York subway: she fell on the tracks because she felt sick
Jones is homeless and known for refusing help from staff who identified him as having mental illness and drug abuse. Law enforcement first encountered Jones in November 2021 after he was wanted by relatives in Newark, New Jersey. According to police, Jones told social workers that he uses K2, takes psychiatric medications and has been homeless for about four years.
Jones was charged in December 2022 with resisting arrest for standing between subway cars in Brooklyn, refusing to leave the station and getting into a fight with officers, police said. He had previously dealt with the police as an “emotionally disturbed person.”
Isolation from society
“New Yorkers put up with a lot. But when young people, ambitious young people who are just trying to live their lives, are randomly attacked, we cannot accept that,” MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said at a briefing.
He called on the mental health system to properly assess the condition of “people who have a disproportionate impact on public space. We feel for them, but we need them to get treatment and leave society.”
Mental health professionals, Lieber said, “need to figure out how to get these people out of the community and into treatment so they can feel better. And that’s even more important for New Yorkers who are just trying to live their lives.”
“Over the past year, we have made tremendous progress in the fight against crime in the subway,” the chairman noted. “But this cannot be any consolation for this young woman’s family.”