A mentally disturbed man in obvious need of medical assistance was left wallowing in his own filth on a Manhattan subway on Sunday while also sending straphangers running in panic — a reminder of the city’s continued struggle to address the severely mentally ill in the subway system.
The sad and disturbing incident unfolded at around 10:15 a.m. on Jan. 26 at the 28th Street station along the uptown 6 train subway line below posh Park Avenue. The weekend commute of families, including seniors and young children, was interrupted when an emotionally disturbed man entered through the turnstile and laid on his back — ranting, raving, and screaming.
State of the subway: Man crawls around platform of 28 Street subway stop in Manhattan on Sunday morning with his pants down near worried commuters before getting on 6 train and appearing to light a substance that sends riders fleeing. He is clearly in need of medical aid. pic.twitter.com/m9iv8uKeZs
— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) January 26, 2025
Riders fled to either end of the platform to maintain distance from the individual, only to recoil in horror as he began crawling along the ground with his soiled pants sagging, exposing his rear end in full view of children.
Moments later, the man managed to board the 6 train after it pulled into the station. He sat on a seat while muttering incoherently and began lighting what appeared to be an illegal substance, causing another young mother to grab her child and high-tail it to the other end of the train car.
He then exited on Grand Central Station and meandered out of sight. He was not arrested and did not come into contact with any police officers.
The man appeared to have been freshly discharged from Bellevue Hospital, wearing a medical tag on his wrist and hospital socks. A revolving door of the mentally ill being discharged from the nearby Bellevue and NYU hospitals has plagued the Kips Bay area for several years now.
“It’s sad that someone obviously in need of medical care is being released back out. Our medical care system is failing them,” said a female resident of Kips Bay, who asked not to be identified. “It’s an abusive cycle.”
The episode occurred at a time when both Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul are doubling down on efforts to boost subway safety and shatter a public perception that the system isn’t safe, even though transit crime fell throughout 2024.
Along with adding more police officers to the subways, Hochul is also pushing state legislation to empower the city government to involuntarily institutionalize those with mental illness who can’t care for themselves.
“We need to ensure that those who are suffering from severe mental illness are getting the care they need and we’re also protecting the innocent bystanders on our subways and on our streets,” Hochul said at a recent press conference.
The effort also comes amid a rash of recent disturbing crimes in the transit system — from the burning death of a woman sleeping on the F train in Brooklyn last month to the random shoving of a straphanger in front of an oncoming 1 train in Midtown on New Year’s Eve.
Read More: https://www.amny.com/new-york/manhattan/
