New York, Dec 29 (IANS) Police are searching for a heavyset woman in her 20s, wearing a ski jacket and sneakers, who allegedly shoved an Indian man to his death in front of a train on a New York City subway platform.
The victim was identified as Sunando Sen, 46, of Queens, who had been raised in India and who, after years of toil, had finally saved enough money to open a small copying business this year on the Upper West Side, according to local media reports.
A woman was seen running from an elevated station for the No. 7 train in Queens on Thursday evening after the second incident in a month that a man had been pushed under a train in New York, CNN reported Friday citing Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.
According to witnesses cited by the channel, the woman was pacing the platform and talking to herself shortly before pushing Sen onto the tracks as the 11-car train entered the station. The victim’s body was pinned under the second car after it came to a stop.
Citing witnesses’ accounts, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Friday there was no contact on the platform between the attacker and the victim immediately before the fatal shove, the New York Times reported. He said Sen was looking out over the tracks when his attacker approached him.
The attack occurred so quickly, with the train already barrelling into the station, that the man had little time to react and bystanders had no time to try to help, said Browne.
Investigators released a grainy black-and-white video overnight showing a person they identified as the attacker fleeing the station and running along Queens Boulevard, the Times said.
She was described by the police as Hispanic, 5 feet 5 inches tall, in her early 20s and heavyset. She was reported to be wearing a blue, white and grey ski jacket and Nike sneakers – grey on top, red on bottom.
The subway station was closed overnight as officers from the Emergency Services Unit used specialised inflatable bags to lift the train and recover the victim’s remains. The No. 7 line had resumed normal service by the morning rush.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that such attacks were exceedingly rare, but that statistics did not diminish the tragedy for the families of the victims.
