A man accused of fatally pushing another person into the path of a New York City subway system was described by his mother and officials as having psychological problems, leading to a mental health crisis on the transit system. There is renewed debate about how the city should respond to people who are living in the city.
Police said the shove victim, who has not been identified by authorities, was pushed onto the tracks at an East Harlem subway station just before 7 p.m. local time on Monday. According to police, the driver of the oncoming train was unable to stop and died.
The suspect, Carlton McPherson, 24, was arrested on suspicion of murder, a police spokesperson said. Mr. McPherson was awaiting arraignment today in Manhattan criminal court. Information about his attorney was not available. He called the legal aid attorney representing Mr. McPherson in his pending assault case in Brooklyn, but there was no answer.
McPherson’s mother, Octavia Skuras, told the New York Times that her son had been hospitalized at least twice for mental health treatment.
Violence is rare on the nation’s largest transit system, but incidents of people being pushed from the narrow platforms of subway stations onto the tracks have long loomed large in the fears of passengers.
The rare incident comes as the city debates how best to address homelessness and mental illness on the streets and underground after a spike in crime during the coronavirus pandemic. The incident received increased attention.
Mayor Eric Adams said at a City Hall press conference that New York City still has a “serious mental illness problem” and that it is “playing out at 125th Street and Lexington Street in the subway station.” I stated it again.
After taking office in 2022, Adams launched an initiative to tackle crime and homelessness in the metro, sending more police, mental health and social services workers to the metro. His plan included involuntary hospitalization of people, a move fiercely opposed by advocates for people with mental illness.
He said city officials continue to work to get homeless people with mental health issues into treatment. Officials said nearly 7,000 people have checked into evacuation centers since the reinforcement began.
“We’re getting people involved and connecting them to shelters,” said Ann Williams Isom, Adams’ deputy mayor for health and human services. “This is the concept of keeping them in a shelter, getting them the support they need, and keeping them out of the system.”
Adams argued that the state should expand on the 1999 Kendra law, which allows courts to order defendants with mental health problems to complete treatment. The law is named after Kendra Webdale, who died after being pushed onto subway tracks by a man with a history of mental illness.
Adams said subway crime has fallen by nearly 6% since taking office in 2022, although violent acts like the fatal shoving have fueled perceptions of illegality.
“I hear over and over again that the city is out of control. That’s not true,” Adams, a former traffic police officer, said at a news conference.
This week’s fatal crash comes on the same day that New York City officials announced plans to send 800 more officers to the subways to crack down on fare evasion, and after a city police officer was shot and killed during a traffic stop. I woke up an hour later. The first member of the department to be killed in the line of duty in the past two years.
