Police have arrested a suspect in the brazen subway shoving at the Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues subway station on Friday, with the alleged perp being hit with an attempted murder charge.
Lamale McRae, 41, of Bushwick, was arrested Monday morning in Brooklyn, and faces assault, reckless endangerment, and harassment charges in addition to the attempted murder rap. Cops believe McRae is the man seen on surveillance video abruptly, and seemingly randomly, pushing a straphanger onto the L train tracks at the station straddling the Brooklyn and Queens border, in Bushwick and Ridgewood.
Cops said that McRae was ID’d by a tipster and picked up in a section of Brooklyn he is “known to frequent.”
The suspect stands accused of rushing into 32-year-old David Martin on the northbound platform, causing the victim to fall to the tracks, before escaping on foot.
Family members told the Daily News that Martin was heading to work when the shove occurred. While he survived, he nonetheless sustained physical injuries and emotional trauma from the incident.
Nine people have lost their lives in the subway system this year, and October in particular has been an exceptionally violent month. On Oct. 7, Charles Moore was fatally stabbed in an unprovoked attack on the 176th Street 4 train platform in the Bronx; a week later, 15-year-old Jayjon Burnett was fatally shot by another teenager aboard an A train in Far Rockaway.
On Oct. 17, Heriberto Quintana was killed by an arriving F train in Jackson Heights after falling onto the tracks amid a physical altercation.
More recently, in the witching hour of Sunday, Oct. 23, a 62-year-old Bronx man was punched by a stranger at the 149th St – Grand Concourse station and fell to the tracks. No train was coming at the time, and the man was removed to the hospital in stable condition.
This is a developing story
