A 39-year-old man was charged on Tuesday with pushing a woman’s head against a moving subway train in a seemingly random attack at a Manhattan station that left the woman seriously injured, police said .
The man, Kamal Semrade, was arrested Monday night at a homeless shelter near La Guardia Airport in Queens, police said. He was charged with attempted murder and assault and was awaiting arraignment on Tuesday evening, officials said.
The stampede episode was the latest disturbing example of the kind of random violent crime that has made some New Yorkers suspicious of the subway and led officials to flood stations with police to reassure riders of safety. of the public transport system.
Mr. Semrade and his victim, 35, boarded the same E train early on Sunday, with Mr. Semrade entering first by jumping a turnstile, police said. Both got off when the train pulled into the Lexington Avenue/63rd Street station around 6 a.m., police said. (The E was running on the F line due to work on the track.)
As the train began to pull back, police said, Mr Semrade approached the woman from behind and pushed her head into it, knocking her back onto the platform. She was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in critical condition with spinal injuries and cuts to her head, police said.
Police have not released the woman’s name, but an online fundraiser set up to help pay for her medical bills identifies her as Emine Yilmaz Ozsoy, an illustrator and designer who immigrated to New York from Turkey.
Photos of the assailant captured by cameras in the station and released by police helped arrest Mr Semrade, officials said. The images show him wearing a dark shirt, dark pants and white shoes and holding a cup of coffee.
Richard Davey, president of New York City Transit, the division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that operates the subway, praised the police department for moving quickly to make an arrest.
“It is now up to prosecutors to pursue the maximum consequences available under the law,” Davey said in a statement.
Investigators believe Mr Semrade had been living at the Queens shelter for two years, police said. But city social services records show he has been assigned to a Bronx shelter since April 2021, according to a person with access to the records who was not authorized to speak about it publicly. The reason for the apparent discrepancy was unclear.
Maria Cramer and Andy Newman contributed reporting. Kirsten Noyes contributed research.