Terrifying video documents as an innocent bystander became the 13th victim this year – and the third in just a week – to be pushed onto the subway tracks in New York City.
A video released Saturday by the New York Police Department shows a man wearing a yellow sweatshirt under a black jacket and jeans and black and white sneakers standing with his arms folded on the north L train tracks near the Wyckoff Avenue and Myrtle Avenue subway stations in Brooklyn on Friday afternoon.
He soon watches as a 32-year-old man in a black jacket and jeans, and with a large blue duffel bag, passes by the busy lane – and proceeds to drop the gray backpack he is carrying.
The maniac looks both ways – as if making sure there are no police on the scene – before sprinting and tackling the man, trying to knock the victim off his feet with his shoulder and hand.
The unsuspecting victim then fell sideways and tumbled onto the subway rails, leaving his sunglasses behind on the crowded platform.
At that point, the attacker runs back to where he left his backpack and escaped through the turnstiles.
A video released by New York Police on Saturday shows a man hitting a subway passenger in jeans and a black jacket at a Brooklyn station on Friday afternoon.
The unidentified suspect then tackles the man and, with his shoulder and hand, leads the victim off his feet
Authorities say the victim was injured but not hit by a train, and a transport worker told the New York Post the victim only sustained an injury to his shoulder.
“He was just in shock that it had happened to him,” the worker said. “It was just a random push. He was just pushed into the tracks – that’s what he said.
“This man pushed him into the rails.”
Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to call the New York Police Department’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-8477 or submit an anonymous tip online.
But Friday’s attack marks the 13th time this year that a subway passenger has been pushed onto the subway tracks — and the third in just a week, though New York Mayor Eric Adams has said the growing crime wave in the city’s subway system just a ‘perception is’ .’
Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to call the New York Police Department’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-8477 or submit an anonymous tip online.
On Monday, 48-year-old Heriberto Quintana was hit by an F train at the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue station at 74th Street and Broadway in Queens at the height of rush hour.
Police say Carlos Garcia, 50, was on the platform when Quintana bumped into him as he walked by, causing the suspect’s cell phone to fall on the subway tracks, sources say. NBC4.
The suspect then demanded that Quintana go get his phone and when he refused, the two started arguing in Spanish and a pushing fight ensued.
During the scuffle, Quintana was knocked onto the rails and hit by an oncoming F-train. He was later pronounced dead at Elmhurst Hospital
Garcia was later arrested and charged with manslaughter over Quintana’s murder.
And on Oct. 15, surveillance footage showed Miguel Ramirez, wide-eyed and unkempt, stalking German Sabio, 26, on 149th Street in the Bronx at 11:50 a.m.
Ramirez then ran after Sabio, pushing him into the path of the oncoming train before fleeing the station as other horrified onlookers rushed to the victim’s aid. They were able to get him to safety before the train rushed through the station.
Sabio was later transported to a nearby hospital.
Ramirez has since been charged with attempted murder, assault, assault with intent to cause serious bodily harm, causing injury by risk of death, and reckless danger.
He has about 10 previous arrests, including for assault, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to ABC7.
On Oct. 15, surveillance footage showed Miguel Ramirez, wide-eyed and unkempt, stalking German Sabio, 26, on 149th Street in the Bronx at 11:50 a.m.
Ramirez then ran after Sabio and pushed him into the path of the approaching train before fleeing the station
Ramirez has since been charged with attempted murder, assault, assault with intent to cause serious bodily harm, causing injury by risk of death, and reckless danger.
Meanwhile, recent data shows subway homicides have risen to the highest level in 25 years, even as passenger numbers plummet.
So far this year, a total of nine people have died on the subways, four of them in the first few weeks of October.
Last week, 15-year-old Jayjon Burnett was shot dead by a known mobster on a Far Rockaway A train just days before his 16th birthday.
Keyondre Russell, 18, was charged with second-degree murder of Burnett and two counts of criminal gun possession.
Charles Moore, 38, and a father were also stabbed in the back and chest after he exited a four train northbound in the Bronx at 10:30 PM on Oct. 6.
Saquan Lemons, 27, was arrested for allegedly stabbing Moore. Police said the attack was random and unprovoked.
And in late September, father-of-three Tommy Bailey was slashed in the neck and murdered by a homeless person on the L train to Atlantic Ave Station in Brooklyn.
It was then that he tried to intervene when Alvin Charles began harassing a female NYPD officer.
During an argument between the couple, Charles pulled a knife and stabbed the 43-year-old steamfitter in the neck.
Police arrested Charles, who had previously been charged with assault for stabbing another man last year.
Tommy Bailey, 43, was aboard the L train to Atlantic Ave Station in Brooklyn when he got into an argument with homeless passenger Alvin Charles, who harassed a cop on Sept. 30. The homeless man pulled a knife and cut Bailey in the throat
Homeless man Alvin Charles (center) was arrested and charged with murder of Bailey
New York City residents attend a vigil here for Michelle Alyssa Go in January after she was pushed into an oncoming subway in Times Square
Earlier this year, Marcus Bethea, 24, was shot dead in April at the Jamaica Center subway station while working as a map sweeper.
Daniel Enriquez, 48, was on the Q train crossing the Manhattan Bridge when a gunman opened fire without warning on May 22.
The Goldman Sachs employee never took the subway, his partner Adam Pollack told DailyMail.com at the time. But an Uber to and from Williamsburg would have cost him $80. Andrew Abdullah, 25, was arrested in that attack.
Another subway brawl at 137 Street – City College train station – left a 14-year-old dead from a stab wound to his stomach on June 9. Police found a knife and broomstick believed to be involved in the crime.
Michelle Alyssa Go, 49, was killed on Jan. 15 when she was pushed onto the subway tracks on the south N/Q/R/W platform at West 42nd Street and Broadway around 9:40 a.m. in an unprovoked attack.
Simon Martial, 61, was arrested a day later and charged with Go’s death. He was sent to a mental institution after prosecutors refused to challenge a mental evaluation that found him unfit to stand trial.
And on New Year’s Day, Roland Huston was killed after jumping on the rails to rescue a man who had been attacked by a group of knife-wielding thugs. Two boys, 16 and 17, were arrested weeks later for murder and gang assault.
In an interview with CNN, Mayor Eric Adams denied that subway crimes are spiraling out of control
He told CNN’s Chris Wallace that only six crimes are reported every day in the subway system
But Mayor Eric Adams continues to deny there is a problem with crime in the subway