A 29-year-old Manhattan woman has been arraigned on an attempted murder charge for allegedly shoving a 54-year-old commuter onto the subway tracks at a Bronx station as a train pulled in last month. The victim was on her way to work.
Luz Sanchez allegedly fled to Georgia and was cuffed in late February, about two and a half weeks after the 7:50 a.m. apparently random attack on the platform of the 2/5 subway line at the Southern Boulevard and East 174th Street station.
Bronx prosecutors say the victim, Rosa Elizabeth Galeas Florencio, had been waiting on the platform at that time when Sanchez allegedly approached her and pushed her body, causing her to stumble backwards. Sanchez then put both her hands on the victim's shoulders and pushed her, causing her to fall backward onto the tracks as a subway pulled into the station, prosecutors have alleged.
The victim screamed for help from the trackbed. Sanchez walked to the edge of the platform, looked at her and walked away, the Bronx district attorney says. A train on the opposite track alerted the oncoming train that the victim was on the ground and the latter was able to brake before hitting her. A good Samaritan pulled her to safety. She was treated for injuries at a hospital and later released.
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In recounting the terrifying moment to Telemundo 48 and 47 afterward, the victim said she saw the next train approaching.
"I yelled for help because I saw the next train was coming soon. I was panicked and terrified that the train was going to run over me," she said.
Sanchez faces attempted assault and assault charges in addition to the second-degree murder count. Bail was set at $150,000. She is due back in court in June. Information on a possible attorney for her wasn't immediately available.
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“The defendant allegedly went up to the victim, who was waiting for a train on her way to work, and deliberately pushed her onto the tracks as a train approached," Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement. "Fortunately, the victim survived this horrific, random attack."
That attack in the Bronx was one of several similar subway crimes so far this year. In January, a naked man pushed a man onto the tracks in Harlem. He survived but his attacker was killed after jumping down to the tracks and getting electrocuted by the third rail, officials said.
That same month, a woman was shoved into a moving train at 59th Street. Other attacks in recent weeks included a teenager punched in the face after waking up a sleeping subway passenger who was on drugs. There have been other incidents involving shoves and stabbings as well across the city, according to police.
