NEW YORK — A 58-year old subway passenger was killed Monday after he was pushed onto the tracks of an onrushing train in Manhattan by a man who had been mumbling to himself as he walked along the platform, police said.
The passenger, identified by the police as Ki-Suck Han, tried to climb back onto the platform but did not make it; he was struck by a southbound Q train in the 49thStreet station. He was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, the New York Police Department said.
The assailant fled and remained at large Monday night, the police said. Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, described the attacker as a black man in his mid-20s in a tan shirt and black pants who was carrying a black jacket and wearing a woolen hat.
Two police officials and a priest were seen escorting a woman believed to be the victim’s wife from a Queens apartment to a police van Monday. They made no comment to reporters outside.
Some details of what happened at the subway station remained unclear hours later, including whether the two men had exchanged words or if the assailant said nothing as he came up from behind and pushed the man onto the tracks.
The subway death Monday unfolded about 12:30 p.m. beneath the red glazed bricks and fluorescent lights of the station, which opens onto Seventh Avenue.
Several bystanders were treated at the scene, apparently for shock or trauma, fire officials said.
Browne said that moments before the episode, witnesses saw a man who was “talking to himself.”
“He gets into an argument and is pushing and shoving,” Browne said, “and at least one witness felt that the aggressor was emotionally disturbed.”
Front Section, Pages 5 on 12/04/2012