NEW YORK — A woman was crushed to death by a subway train Monday in New York City after another woman pushed her onto the tracks at the bustling station beneath Times Square, police said.
Authorities said the women were on the platform shortly after 1 p.m. and had been seen having some kind of discussion or argument. Then one woman pushed the other, a 46-year-old, in front of a southbound No. 1 train. She died at the scene.
Police said witnesses flagged down two police officers standing on the platform and the suspect, identified as Melanie Liverpool, 30, of Queens, was apprehended within minutes. She was later arrested on a murder charge. It wasn’t clear if she had a lawyer who could comment on her behalf.
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Authorities have described the suspect as emotionally disturbed.
Police were looking at video surveillance to determine what led to the attack, Manhattan Chief of Detectives William Aubry said.
Subway deaths from pushes are not common, but there have been a few in the past few years. In 2014, Kevin Darden, 34, was charged with killing a 61-year-old immigrant from Hong Kong, Wai Kuen Kwok, by shoving him into the path of a subway train in the Bronx. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is awaiting sentencing.
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In 2012, Erika Menendez, a mentally ill woman who had a history of attacking strangers, shoved an immigrant from India off a subway platform in Queens. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. The victim, Sunando Sen, was 46.
Also in 2012, a homeless man, Naeem Davis, was arrested and charged with shoving Ki-Suck Han, a Korean immigrant, into the path of a subway train at a station near Times Square.
A fatal subway push in 1999 led to a state law, known as Kendra’s Law, that allows supervision of certain patients outside of institutions to make sure they’re taking medications and don’t present a public safety threat. It came after the death of Kendra Webdale, who was pushed to her death by a former mental patient.