A subway train severed a woman’s two feet after her boyfriend allegedly pushed her onto the tracks Saturday morning in New York, the New York (NY) Post reported.
The victim, 29, and her boyfriend were arguing with each other when he allegedly pushed her in the path of the southbound 3 train as it pulled into Fulton Street Station in Lower Manhattan at 10:25 a.m., according to the report. Officers of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) helped rescue the woman and took her to a hospital in critical condition, the report revealed. The alleged culprit reportedly fled the scene and is now wanted.
Less than an hour later, a man jumped onto the tracks at an intersection in Midtown Manhattan, about six miles northeast of Fulton Station, and a passing train killed him, according to the report.
The subject of responding to crimes occurring in the New York subway system appears to have driven a wedge between the NYPD and other arms of the city’s criminal justice system. (RELATED: Kathy Hochul Defends Sending National Guard Into NYC Subways, Says Move Was Made To Address ‘High Level Of Anxiety’)
Last year, 38 individuals accounted for assaulting 60 @NYCTSubway employees. Those 38 individuals have been arrested 1,126 times combined.@NYCMayor & @NYPDTransit spoke with @ABC7NY this morning about the realities of crime & recidivism in the subway system.
Watch below ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/0SKsNIWrnm
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) March 6, 2024
“[W]hy are [the NYPD] forced to arrest these people so many times & where are the consequences for their repeated illegal actions? Know this, the NYPD does NOT determine and/or impose consequences,” NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper tweeted Thursday. “That is the responsibility of the other stakeholders in the criminal justice system (lawmakers, judges, prosecutors). NY’ers deserve better.”
“We have a recidivism crisis in our city,” Mayor Eric Adams told ABC7 New York Wednesday. Thirty-eight people committed 1,126 crimes of assault against 60 subway employees, he said. “It’s not a crime surge we’re experiencing. We’re experiencing a recidivism surge.”
“[New Yorkers] need to know that there are other stakeholders in the criminal justice system business,” Kemper told ABC7 New York Friday. “Every arrest we make, we then hand off to other stakeholders—prosecutors, judges, who’re bound by laws passed by state legislators—and somehow we’re arresting the same people over and over and over again.”
As I’ve been repeatedly saying since day one, the lack of consequences for repeat offenders poses one of the biggest challenges towards the safe subway system New Yorkers deserve. I’m glad to see this important topic is now getting the attention it so rightfully deserves. pic.twitter.com/4Gn1msmzEy
— NYPD Chief of Transit (@NYPDTransit) March 8, 2024
“I agree with Chief Kemper that we have to make changes in the bail laws,” Democratic New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul told ABC7 New York. She added that she “clearly understand[s] the frustration of law enforcement” who worked hard to build a case against a suspect only for the suspect to be back on the streets. The discretionary powers of judges previously removed by a previous administration and legislature were reinstated last May, “and now we need the prosecutors and the DAs and the judges to follow that,” Gov. Hochul said.
Subway crimes make up 2% of crimes in New York City but the presence of people with severe mental illness creates the feeling of insecurity, Mayor Adams told ABC7 New York, adding that there was a need to proactively and involuntarily remove such people.