(Reuters) – New York City police were searching on Tuesday for a man who grabbed and pushed a woman onto the tracks at a Bronx train station over the weekend, the latest in a string of violent crimes on one of the world’s largest transit systems.
New York City police posted on Twitter a video of the incident showing a man walking up behind a woman, wrapping his arms around her and tossing her over the platform on to the southbound tracks on Sunday afternoon at the Westchester and Jackson train station.
The woman was taken to hospital where she was in stable condition, a New York Police Department spokesperson told Reuters. Local media reported that bystanders helped the woman off the tracks before a train arrived and that she suffered a broken collar bone and cuts.
A $3,500 reward was being offered for information leading to the arrest of the assailant, who was wearing a white sleeveless T-shirt, shorts and baseball cap and was carrying a red backpack.
Earlier this year, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams vowed to increase police patrols and expand outreach to the mentally ill after an unusual number of passengers were pushed onto the subway tracks by random assailants.
In April, a man set off smoke bombs and opened fire inside a New York City subway car in Brooklyn, striking 10 people with gunfire. Frank James was taken into custody for the attack some 30 hours later in lower Manhattan and pleaded not guilty to federal terrorism charges.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
