The New York Police Department released video of the woman who pushed a man a man to his death on subway tracks at the Queens Boulevard and 40th Street-Lowery Street station on Thursday.
Today a woman was arrested and charged with a hate crime for pushing the man on the tracks. The woman, Erika Menendez, said she pushed the man on the tracks because she hates Hindus and Muslims and has ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers.
The New York Times reported:
A 31-year-old woman was arrested on Saturday and charged with a hate crime in connection with the death of a man who was pushed onto the tracks of an elevated subway station in Queens and crushed by an oncoming train.
The woman, Erika Menendez of the Bronx, has been charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime, Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney, said.
“The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter’s nightmare,” Mr. Brown said in an interview. “Being suddenly and senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train.”
Mr. Brown quoting Ms. Menendez as telling the police, “I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I’ve been beating them up.”
Ms. Menendez conflated the Muslim and Hindu faiths both in her comments to the police and in her target for attack, officials said.