Woman in critical condition after man pushes her into Manhattan subway train

NEW YORK – A 30-year-old woman was in critical condition Wednesday after a man described by law enforcement officials as emotionally disturbed pushed her into a moving subway train in an apparently random attack at a Manhattan station.

The woman, whom police did not identify, was on the platform at the 53rd Street/Fifth Avenue station shortly after noon when the man shoved her against a departing E train, police said.

Witnesses said the attacker was talking to himself before he pushed her.

The woman fell onto the subway tracks after her head hit the train, Mr Michael Kemper, the New York Police Department’s chief of transit, said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon.

Mr Kemper said “good Samaritans” helped her back onto the platform.

She was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in critical condition, police officials said.

The police were seeking the suspect, whom Mr Kemper identified as Mr Sabir Jones, 39.

Mr Kemper described Mr Jones as “known to the department”.

“He’s known to us in the subway system,” the chief said, adding that video from security cameras in the station had helped investigators identify Mr Jones as the suspect.

The organisation that provides homeless-outreach services on the subway, the Bowery Residents’ Committee, has encountered him several times as part of those efforts, according to a person who was given access to some of his social service records.

The chance of becoming a crime victim on the subway is low, but high-profile attacks have fed fears over security in a system that is battling to win back riders.

The sudden shove in particular is a perennial urban nightmare.

As at Sunday, 15 people have been pushed off subway platforms in the city in 2023.

There were 22 in the same period in 2022, according to the police.

Officials could not say how many of the episodes resulted in serious injuries, but said that many of those who were shoved had managed to scramble to safety.

In May, a woman was critically injured after a man shoved her head against a moving subway train at the Lexington Avenue/63rd Street station.

The woman, Ms Emine Yilmaz Ozsoy, 35, was partially paralysed in the attack.

The last fatal subway push occurred in January 2022, when Ms Michelle Go, 40, was shoved onto the tracks at the Times Square subway station and hit by an arriving R train.

Martial Simon, 61, a schizophrenic homeless man who had a history of erratic behaviour, was charged with second-degree murder in Ms Go’s death but deemed unfit to stand trial.

The fatal shoving of Ms Go prompted renewed calls for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subway, to explore installing the kind of platform barriers used in subway systems around the world to block access to tracks.

In February 2022, the authority announced plans to test such barriers at three stations.

Hours after Wednesday’s attack, police officers were still turning away people by the dozens at an entrance to the 53rd Street station.

Ms Natalie Tanner, 23, who was visiting from Ottawa, Canada, said she was troubled to learn that someone had been pushed but would continue using the subway because it was the cheapest and quickest way to navigate the city.

“This is like something out of a TV show,” Ms Tanner said. “It’s unbelievable.” NYTIMES