Surveillance video shows an unidentified woman rising from a bench and pushing a man in his back with both hands. He fell onto the tracks as a train entered the elevated station in Queens. The woman then fled the scene.
Witnesses told police the woman was mumbling and cursing before she pushed the man. The man reportedly had not interacted with the woman before he was pushed.
The man was identified as a 46-year-old Queens resident from India who worked for a printing business.
The suspect was described as a heavyset woman in her 20s. It was not known if the two knew each other.
The incident marked the second subway fatality push in a month. A homeless man allegedly pushed a commuter onto subway tracks on December 3. The man was arrested and is awaiting trial for murder. A controversial photo was published in the New York Post showing the man seconds before he was struck by the train as he struggled to get back onto the platform.
Asked about the episode at the station on Queens Boulevard in the Sunnyside neighborhood, Mayor Michael Bloomberg pointed Friday to legal and policy changes that led to the release of many mentally ill people from psychiatric institutions from the 1960s through 1990s.
There are no barriers separating the trains from the people on New York City's subway platforms, and many people fall or jump to their deaths in front of rushing trains each year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
