Erika Menendez, a New York woman, has been charged with the second degree murder after she pushed a man in front of a train in Queens, New York and said she did it because she hates Muslims since the Sept. 11 attacks in the sister, according to reports.
Erika Menendez, 31, was charged in the death of Sunando Sen, who was crushed by a 7 train in Queens on Thursday night, the second time this month a commuter has died after being pushed in front of a moving train in the city. Sen, 46, was from India and lived in Queens.
"(She) said in sum and substance 'I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I've been beating them up,'" the prosecutor said in a statement.
Sen had his back to her when she suddenly got up from a nearby bench and shoved him just as the subway train pulled up to the platform, reports Fox News. The event took place on Thursday night in Queens. Security video showed a person running from the scene.
Menendez made "statements implicating herself in the death of Sunando Sen," Paul Browne, the New York Police Department's chief spokesman, said earlier.
"The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter's worst nightmare -- being suddenly and senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train," said Brown, the district attorney. "The victim was allegedly shoved from behind and had no chance to defend himself. Beyond that, the hateful remarks allegedly made by the defendant and which precipitated the defendant's actions can never be tolerated by a civilized society."
Some witnesses said Sen had been shielding himself from the cold by waiting in a stairwell before he ventured out onto the platform to see if the train was coming. They also said he had no interaction with the woman, who immediately darted down a stairway after she pushed him.
"It's a very tragic case, but what we want to focus on today is the overall safety in New York," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters following a police academy graduation.
There are no barriers separating the trains from the people on the city's subway platforms, and many people fall or jump to their deaths in front of rushing trains each year.
Earlier this month, 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han was tragically pushed in front of a train in Times Square by a homeless man, 30-year-old Naeem Davis who has been charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty and has said that Han was the aggressor and had attacked him first. The two men hadn't met before.
Unfortunately, no other passengers helped Han out of the train tracks and one New York Post photographer captured a griping photo of Han trying to get himself out of the tracks. The Post photograph was accompanied by the two headlines "Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die," and "Doomed." It received widespread criticism as critics wondered why the photographer, R. Umar Abbasi, didn't help Han instead.
