MANHATTAN – Police have arrested a homeless man and slapped him with murder charges, accused of shoving an Upper West Side woman on to the subway tracks in front of an approaching R train Saturday morning in the Times Square station in a random attack— the train, crushing the woman beneath its wheels, killing her.
61-year-old Simon Martial is now charged with murder in the tragic attack that unfolded in midtown around 9:37 am Saturday morning.
Police say the victim, 40-year-old Michelle Alyssa Go, was simply waiting for a train on the southbound R train platform in Times Square when the suspect suddenly shoved her onto the train tracks.
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“This incident was unprovoked and the victim does not appears to have had any interaction with the subject,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said.
“This was a senseless— absolutely senseless— act of violence,” she added.
Detective say prior to the victim, a 40-year-old woman of Asian descent, being suddenly shoved onto the tracks— the suspect accosted a different woman, who isn’t Asian, and got close enough to make her believe he was about to push her on the tracks.
“As she’s walking away, she witnesses the crime where he pushes our other victim in front of the train,” said Assistant Chief of Detectives Jason Wilcox.
It’s not clear whether the victim’s ethnicity played a role in a heinous attack.
Less than a half hour after the killing, 61-year-old Simon Martial turned himself into police in Lower Manhattan— detectives said he had a history of mental health episodes and encounters with police in the past.
Walked out of NYPD’s Midtown South precinct station house in handcuffs late Saturday night, the suspect shouted “go fuck yourself” at reporters before admitting he pushed the woman “because of God.”
Mayor Eric Adams, who announced a surge of NYPD officers into the subway stations earlier this month, surveyed the crime scene this afternoon and spoke to reporters.
“Our hearts go out to the families that were impacted— this was a traumatic experience,” Mayor Adams said at news conference.
“Were going to continue to do everything that’s possible to make our subways safe,” the Mayor added.
“You cant blame this on de Blasio, this is on your watch now,” a fed up strap hanger said of Mayor Eric Adams in an interview with FreedomNews.tv.
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“Get your asses down here and get these people… out of the system and into a facility where they can get some help.”
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