Man pushed in front of subway train on New Year’s Eve in Manhattan survives

NEW YORK – A 23-year-old man was arrested and charged with attempted murder on the night of Dec 31, hours after a man waiting on a Manhattan, New York, subway platform was violently shoved into the path of an oncoming train.

The victim, whose name has not been released, was in critical but stable condition at Bellevue Hospital, police said.

The man who was arrested in the shoving, Kamel Hawkins, was also charged with second-degree assault. He has a string of past arrests on charges of assault, harassment and weapons possession, according to police and court records.

A video of the attack, which happened around 1.30pm, shows a man in an orange jacket who appears to be looking down at his phone while standing near the edge of the southbound platform at the 18th Street No. 1 station.

A person in a dark coat is then seen passing behind the man in the orange jacket before doubling back and shoving him forcefully off the platform and into the path of a southbound train.

Other videos posted on social media appear to show a group of firefighters pulling the man out from between train cars and onto the platform. As he lies flat on the floor, his hand moves slightly.

“He’s alive!” one person exclaims.

Emergency services workers responded to the incident, stabilised the man and put him on a stretcher, according to the Fire Department. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, police said.

Power to the tracks was shut off in the area for an hour, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said. Service resumed a little before 4pm.

Mr Dale Roberts, 75, got off a southbound 1 train at the station around that time on his way home from work. He said he had moved to the city in 1974 and was not surprised someone had been shoved in front of a moving train there.

“There’s a real sense of more than just kind of precautionary sensibilities,” he said of the general mood he detected among passengers these days. “There starts to become an embedded fear. And that’s not good for the city or the riders in general.”

Mr Roberts said he felt that many of those who committed violent acts in the subway were seriously troubled and unable to get the care they needed.

“They just need to be removed” from the system and put in a facility of some kind, he said.

“You could be laissez-faire about things,” he said, “but at a certain point, public safety, quality of life and such issues start to come to the forefront. And if that starts to deteriorate, the city, as it is, is just going to fall.”

A short time later, commuters Steven Schmatz and Riyu Banerjee got off an uptown train at the station, which is close to Mr Schmatz’s home. They said they had just been talking about the shoving attack and were shocked to learn that it had happened at 18th Street.

“I’ve never felt unsafe here,” Mr Schmatz said. “That’s crazy.”

He added: “I don’t think I’ve seen any major incidents since I’ve lived in New York for the past seven years. I’ve seen anti-social behaviour, but I haven’t seen anything super dangerous. It does seem like there’s been an uptick recently.”

The attack came days after a woman died after being set on fire on a stationary subway train in New York City on Dec 22 while she appeared to be sleeping.

The victim was on Dec 31 identified as Ms Debrina Kawam, 57, whom New York City Mayor Eric Adams said “had a brief stint in our homeless shelter system”.

Her suspected attacker, Sebastian Zapeta, a 33-year-old Guatemalan citizen, was charged with murder and arson after allegedly setting Ms Kawam on fire and watching her burn to death at the subway station. NYTIMES, REUTERS