New York City police are looking for a man who allegedly pushed a subway passenger off a platform on train tracks in Brooklyn before fleeing Friday afternoon.
The NYPD released security footage from the incident and confirmed that the victim was not hit by a train but was physically injured.
The unidentified suspect “intentionally charged without provocation at a 32-year-old male victim” who was walking by, pushing him onto the tracks at the Wyckoff Avenue and Myrtle Avenue subway station around 2:40 p.m., the NYPD said in a statement late Saturday. .
New York City has been plagued by several high-profile violent crimes in recent months, including on its subway, prompting officials to improve their crime-fighting strategies.
Since Oct. 17, crime in the city’s subway has risen more than 41 percent with 1,813 incidents so far this year, up from 1,282 in the same period last year, according to NYPD statistics. Nine homicides have occurred in the city’s subway system so far this year, officials said, and 40 percent of those responsible for the killings had a history of mental health problems.
The latest incident comes as New York City and state officials are stepping up efforts to combat crime and mental illness in the New York metro area with an increased police presence and new training for officers on dealing with the homeless.
The new initiatives will include a major investment from the state’s public emergency fund to support an increase of about 1,200 additional overtime officer shifts on subway platforms and trains each day. However, officials did not say how much money the city will receive as part of the investment.
The transit authority will also employ unarmed security guards at the turnstiles to increase security presence and prevent toll evasion, Gov. Kathy Hotchul said at a news conference Saturday.
Transit police officers will be deployed to four major commuter rail hubs, including Penn Station, Grand Central Station, Atlantic Terminal and Sutphin-Archer (Jamaica) Station, freeing up about 100 New York City officers to deploy to other transit locations, according to a joint press release.
In September, Hochul announced an initiative to install two cameras in every subway car by 2024 to boost security coverage. The city has already installed more than 200 cameras throughout the system and plans to install an additional 100 cameras in the coming days, the governor said.
