A crazed stranger shoved a 65-year-old woman onto Bronx subway tracks in an unprovoked attack Thursday afternoon and later walked into a psychiatric clinic admitting what he’d done, cops and sources said.
The victim was standing on the northbound No. 5 train platform at East 180th Street and Morris Park Avenue in Van Nest around 1:40 p.m. When the menace silently approached her from behind and shoved her onto the roadbed, police said.
A quick-thinking bystander flagged down cops who were conducting station inspection duties nearby. The officers halted their inspection to help the victim back up onto the platform, law enforcement sources said.
She was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition with only knee injuries, police said.
The suspect had no apparent connection to the victim, according to authorities.
After the attack, he showed up at a psychiatric clinic and told employees he had just pushed someone onto the subway tracks, the sources said. He requested an evaluation at the facility.
He was in police custody Friday, but was still being evaluated at the psychiatric facility, according to the sources.
The random nature of the attack has renewed concerns about subway safety in New York City, where unprovoked violence underground has drawn repeated scrutiny from riders and elected officials alike.
The incident follows a string of high-profile subway shoves that have rattled the transit system in recent years. In several cases, suspects with documented mental health histories have been arrested after attacking strangers on platforms or trains.
Police have not released the suspect’s name or any details about his prior history. The sources did not specify which psychiatric clinic he entered or how long after the attack he arrived there.
The victim’s identity also has not been made public. Her relatively minor injuries, limited to her knee, stood in contrast to the potentially fatal consequences of falling onto subway tracks during active service.
The No. 5 train runs express through parts of the Bronx and connects to Manhattan, making the East 180th Street station one of the busier hubs in the borough’s transit network.
Authorities have not indicated what charges the suspect may face pending the completion of his psychiatric evaluation.