Fresh reports reaching the desk of Africa Daily News, New York has revealed that a 50-year-old man is under arrest and has been detained after a fight had broken out with another subway rider which had ended with that man being fatally struck by a train in Elmhurst, Queens.
The suspect had been reportedly standing near the platform of the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Ave. station at around 4:45 p.m. Monday when the other 48-year-old Heriberto Quintana bumped into him while walking by and the contact had sent the suspect’s cellphone tumbling onto the subway tracks.
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The suspect, who has been identified as Carlos Garcia, had told the victim to go get his phone. He had refused, and the two began arguing which then became a brawl.
In a defensive move, Garcia had then pushed the victim off his body which had caused him to slide headfirst across the platform into the front of a moving F train. Quintana, of Queens, had been pronounced dead at Elmhurst Hospital.
Garcia had been arrested on a charge of manslaughter. He does not have a significant criminal history.
It was the ninth killing in the city’s subway system this year, and the 10th in transit.
The latest in a series of high-profile incidents in the New York City transit system has left transit president Rich Davey frustrated.
“Yeah, it’s frustrating, you know, I wish I could wave a magic wand and, you know, get folks who need mental health services mental health,” Davey said. “Some of these crimes are senseless. Yesterday’s act, it seems, was senseless. Was over a cellphone, for God’s sake.”
Davey toured the Union Square station Tuesday, which has been the scene of several incidents in recent months-where there was a sizable police presence in the afternoon.
