Deranged attacker shoves woman onto NYC subway tracks, punches another in the face

The incident unfolded around 8:45 am at the R train stop at 53rd Street and Fourth Avenue, where a 51-year-old woman was pushed onto the tracks and a 43-year-old woman was punched, according to authorities.

A 25-year-old individual was identified as a person of interest and later taken into custody at a local shelter. Both victims sustained facial injuries along with pain in their legs and backs.

“The guy was sitting on the platform and they were standing,” Vietnam veteran Al Rivera told the New York Post. “All of a sudden he pushed her on the tracks and then he turned around and pounced on the other lady. He was hitting her, punching her in the face.”

Rivera said a bystander leapt down onto the tracks to assist the woman who had been shoved.

“I can only imagine how petrified they were,” Rivera said, who got the blow-by-blow from a friend of one of the victims. He expressed concern that the suspect could soon be back on the streets.

“He did wrong to those people and he is not going to stop until someone sends him to the cemetery. He’s not going to stay in jail. It’s a rotating door.” The comments reflect a wider trend that many have pointed out in other cities, where perpetrators are not held in jails pending their trial, and go out to commit more crimes.

“Every time I hear something like this, I get more fearful,” Yolene Martinez, a 24-year-old Manhattan office worker said. “I can’t drive into the City so I rely on the train."

“It’s happening too often — someone gets pushed on the tracks, someone gets slashed, someone gets shot,” she added. “When will it end?”

The assault comes amid a rise in serious crime across the city’s transit system. According to NYPD statistics, major offenses in subways are up 17 percent this year compared to the same period in 2025.