Police arrested a woman who shoved another woman into an incoming train at the Times Square station. Gaby Acevedo reports.
A 29-year-old Queens woman has been charged with attempted murder in the case of a woman who was shoved into a moving train at the Times Square subway station at the height of Monday's morning rush in an apparently unprovoked attack.
Anthonia Egegbara was taken into custody Tuesday, officials said. It wasn't immediately clear if she had an attorney who could comment on the allegations. Police said Egegbara has seven previous arrests on her record, one of which is related to another incident inside the subway system.
The 42-year-old victim, identified as Lenny Javier, was on the northbound 1/2/3 platform at the 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue station just after 8:15 a.m. when another woman investigators believe to be Egegbara, gets up from a bench and shoves her into the train just as it comes speeding by, video shows.
No words were exchanged between the two before the shove, investigators said. While the victim did not fall onto the tracks, police said that she smacked her face against the train and fell back onto the platform.
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She was hospitalized with "serious physical injuries" to her face, arms and legs, officials said, including an arm that was fractured in three spot and multiple broken bones in her face, her father told NBC New York.
In a statement Tuesday, an MTA spokesman called the attack "senseless and absurd."
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“The city needs to provide additional mental health services to assist those who may endanger themselves and others," agency spokesman Tim Minton said. "The NYPD’s rapid identification and arrest in this case makes riders safer."
Hours after the violent midtown incident, witnesses said that Egegbara got into a separate altercation in the Bronx. Video shows her being restrained on the ground after apparently getting into an argument with a group of people bear the 149th Street and Third Avenue subway station.
Egegbara was expected to face a judge Tuesday night after undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.
According to NYPD statistics, there were 17 subway shoving incidents at this time last year, compared to 20 so far in 2021.
