The video of the attack suffered by a 45-year-old American on Tuesday afternoon sends chills down your spine. The man who was waiting for the subway in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York was violently pushed onto the tracks by another passenger, reports ABC 7 NY. Treated by emergency services and transferred to hospital, he miraculously survived, although he remains seriously injured.
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According to the New York Timesthe forty-year-old suffers a ruptured spleen, four broken ribs and a fractured skull. He fell next to the train and was only hit by one side of the train and not head-on, according to the first elements of the investigation. Everything happened within a few centimeters.
A mental health problem
A 23-year-old suspect was quickly identified and arrested by the police. His father, interviewed by the national daily, talks about his son’s failing mental health and his drug use in recent months. A witness to the tragedy explained for his part that the young man behaved very suspiciously on the platform: “He had his hood on. I made eye contact with him, I got a very strange feeling. So I immediately sat down on the bench,” she told the TV channel.
-In the images filmed by the metro’s video surveillance, we can in fact see the suspect approach the victim for the first time before returning and throwing him onto the tracks as the train arrives. He would have acted without knowing the passenger and without valid reason.
A “terrible act of violence”
Known to the police, the young adult has already been arrested for assault, carrying weapons or harassment. In connection with this case, he was charged with assault and attempted murder. He will remain incarcerated until his next appearance in court on January 6.
On social networks, New York Mayor Eric Adams deplored a “horrible act of violence” which “has absolutely no place in our subway system”. “Random acts of violence like this contribute to New Yorkers’ feeling of insecurity,” he continued, while recalling that acts of incivility on transportation have decreased.
Woman burned alive in Brooklyn
But recent news items have rekindled the debate on the management of mental health by the judicial authorities. On December 22, a man burned a dozing passenger on a train alive in Brooklyn.
The New York Times recalls that the last person to survive a fall in the subway escaped with a fractured chin, a broken arm and nose. This 42-year-old woman was shoved at Times Square station in 2021. Her assailant received twelve years in prison.
