A woman catching the subway at New York City's Times Square on Saturday was pushed in front of an oncoming train and killed, per NBC News. Authorities called the attack random and said the suspect initially fled before turning himself into police a short time later. The 40-year-old victim, identified as Michelle Alyssa Go of New York, was waiting for a southbound R train around 9:40am when she was apparently shoved, police told the AP. A second woman told police the man had approached her minutes earlier and she feared he would push her onto the tracks. Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, alongside new mayor Eric Adams, told reports at a news conference at the station that Go's murder was unprovoked.
Saturday's attack against Go, who was of Asian descent, also raised concerns amid a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in New York and around the country. Police officials said the killing, including whether it was a hate crime, was under investigation, but noted that the first woman allegedly approached was not Asian. Police also identified the suspect, 61-year-old Simon Martial. Martial, who police said is homeless, was charged with second-degree murder. It was not immediately known whether he had an attorney who could comment. Police said Martial has a criminal history and has been on parole.
Subway conditions and safety have become a worry for many New Yorkers during the pandemic. Although police statistics show major felonies in the subways have dropped over the past two years, so has ridership, making it difficult to compare. And some recent attacks have gotten public attention and raised alarms. In September, three transit employees were assaulted in separate incidents on one day. Several riders were
slashed and assaulted by a group of attackers on a train in lower Manhattan in May, and four separate stabbings—two of them fatal—happened within a few hours on a single subway line in February.
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