Prosecutors say a woman shoved in a violent unprovoked attack in Manhattan last month has been paralyzed after the suspect pushed her "with all his force into the moving subway car."
The altercation, which broke the 35-year-old's spine, went down the morning of May 21 in an apparently wordless, random attack at the Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street station.
Police said that Kamal Semrade, 39, was arrested two days later. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Tuesday that the Queens man had been indicted on an attempted murder charge. Attorney information for Semrade was not immediately known.
The victim, later identified as Emine Yilmaz, had boarded the same train at the Roosevelt Avenue stop in Queens on her way to work. They had both stepped off the train at the Manhattan stop around 6 a.m. when the attack happened.
According to the NYPD, Semrade allegedly came up from behind the woman and shoved her head into an E train, which was preparing to depart the station. She fell backward onto the platform and was taken to a hospital for treatment of lacerations to her head as well as a diagnosed spinal fracture, officials say.
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A witness, Nancy Marrero, said she saw Yilmaz walking along the platform as the train started to move, which is when the suspect allegedly attacked.
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"I just see him walk up besides her to her left side and with palms open just shove her head onto the train as it moved...He just took both hands, not at her body, aimed specifically at her head like he wanted the head to hit. So when he shoved her into it, so her head hit and her body like tumbling in a circle and she just dropped onto the platform," said Marrero.
That's when the man took off, and Marrero screamed out loud. She then rushed to the victim's aid.
"Why would you do that to her? I go up to her and I kneel down and I was like, 'Are you OK? Are you OK?'" Marrero asked, as Yilmaz was bleeding and not moving. "When she landed, because she tumbled she landed on her stomach with her hand like this and this arm twisted and she said 'I have no feeling to my arm.'"
Marrero comforted Yilmaz, who was asking if she was going to die as her forehead was "split from the front all the way to the back," the good Samaritan said. She was so badly bloodied the woman's Face ID feature on her phone didn't recognize her, Marrero said. She stayed with Yilmaz until first responders arrived.
"I was rubbing her back. Consoling her because she wanted to go to sleep. Her eyes kept opening, she said I feel weak. Oh my god she broke my heart," Marrero said. "I stood with her to the very end. To the very end."
A GoFundMe page described Yilmaz as a "source of joy as a friend, colleague and human being. She's artistic, lighthearted, witty, and above all, someone we consider family," it says.
Bragg's office alleges Semrade returned to his shelter in Queens following the attack, where he removed this clothing and placed it out for laundry service. Staff at the shelter reportedly identified him following a Crime Stoppers post.
