NYC man traumatized after random subway shoving: ‘Thank God he’s alive’
An unhinged stranger attacked a random straphanger inside a Brooklyn subway station, catapulting his victim onto the tracks as a group of terrified children stood watching, police said Saturday.
David Martin, 32, suffered a fractured collarbone when a violent shove from behind sent him flying Friday afternoon, with his sister saying the victim was deeply traumatized by the unprovoked attack while headed to work at an Upper East Side restaurant.
“The guy said absolutely nothing,” sibling Jennifer Martin told the Daily News as her brother recovered Saturday from the assault. “He just came at him from behind and body-slammed him. David didn’t even see him at all ... It keeps replaying in his head, it keeps flashing in his mind. He was up all night.”
Cops released images of the subway shover while hunting the fugitive in the latest of four violent incidents on the trains in the last week. Mayor Adams and Gov. Hochul addressed the surge in transit violence Saturday at a news conference in Grand Central Station where they rolled out a new plan to combat the issue.
Martin was waiting for a Manhattan-bound L train at the Myrtle-Wyckoff station about 2:40 p.m. Friday when the stranger bum-rushed him, knocking him off the platform and onto the tracks, cops said.
Video of the encounter released by police on Saturday night showed the suspect slamming into the victim like a football player. Martin crashed into the track bed, breaking his collarbone.
Several children were nearby with their parents and witnessed the random attack, a police source said.
Martin’s sister said bystanders helped her sibling off the tracks and walked him to the end of the platform and up a staircase because the broken bone made it too difficult for him to maneuver. He came home with his arm in a sling, and was expected to miss six weeks of work in his job as a server.
The assailant was standing on a yellow strip on the opposite side of the platform with a backpack slung over his shoulder, the station surveillance video recovered by police shows. As he watches people pass, he casually removed his backpack before breaking into a sprint toward Martin.
After running across the platform and slamming into his victim, he returned to his backpack, picked it up and fled from the station.
The attacker was described as Black with a thin build and glasses. At the time of the attack he was wearing a black baseball cap, yellow hoodie, black jacket and black jeans, and carrying a large grey or green backpack.
Anyone with information regarding Friday’s subway shoving is asked to call CrimeStoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.
The victim’s shaken mother Audrey Martin was upset by both her son’s injuries and the lack of outreach by the city to her family.
“Thank God he’s alive,” she said. “I think the trauma is overwhelming, like how can you wrap your head around a random person doing that, and why me?”
