E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Joshua Lott / Reuters
New York City police officers escort 31-year-old Erika Menendez to a waiting car as she screams in Queens, New York City, on Saturday.
Updated, 10:42 a.m. Sunday -- NEW YORK — A 31-year-old Bronx woman charged with pushing an immigrant to his death from a New York City subway platform has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Erika Menendez was arraigned Saturday night on a charge of murder as a hate crime, the Associated Press reported. Judge Gia Morris ordered that she be held without bail and be given a mental health exam, it said
Menendez is charged in the death of Sunando Sen, who was crushed by a train in Queens on Thursday night
Menendez, who was seen muttering to herself before shoving a man onto subway tracks in front of a speeding train, said she did so because, "I hate Hindus and Muslims," prosecutors said on Saturday.
Menendez admitted to investigators that she pushed Sunando Sen, a 46-year-old Queens resident, on Thursday because of her hatred of Hindus and Muslims, a feeling that stems from Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Sen was born in India and ran a printing shop. He died Thursday night after being knocked onto the tracks. Police released security camera video showing a woman running from the station.
Police said that Menendez was recognized on the street in Brooklyn by a passer-by who called 911. Patrol officers found and arrested her.
In a statement, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said that while in custody Menendez made incriminating statements, saying that she "pushed a Muslim" onto the tracks. Brown also said:
"The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter's worst nightmare - being suddenly and senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train. The victim was allegedly shoved from behind and had no chance to defend himself. Beyond that, the hateful remarks allegedly made by the defendant and which precipitated the defendant's actions can never be tolerated by a civilized society."
The attack was the second time this month that someone was pushed to their death in a New York City subway station. A homeless man was arrested in early December and accused of shoving a man in front of a train in Times Square. He is awaiting trial, and claimed he acted in self-defense.
Further details on how police managed to identify Menendez were not immediately available.
A woman is reportedly in custody in connection with the death of a man who was struck by an oncoming NYC subway.
Investigators had been following up on tips from people who had seen the security video and were checking homeless shelters and psychiatric units in an attempt to identify the woman.
It was unclear whether Menendez had any connection to Sen. Witnesses told police the two hadn't interacted on the platform as they both waited for the train.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press and Reuters.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Woman charged in connection with fatal firefighter shootings
- New York City homicides, shootings at modern record lows
- Sheriff orders armed 'posse' to patrol schools
- Video: 'Seeing-eye' mannequins track shoppers' habits
- Snowstorm heads for Northeast, but it's a gentler one
- Landslides take out Amtrak service in rainy Northwest
- The year in quotes quiz: Test your knowledge!
- Video: TODAY's most newsworthy stories of 2012
Leave a Comment:
This creature needs to be sent to jail for a true life sentence, with no possibility of parole. She should never set foot on a public street, sidewalk, subway or building again. I really don't care if she is adjudged insane, just as long as she never, ever has a chance of getting out. I do not consider what the lawyers term insanity to be a valid excuse for doing what she did, and she is beyond any possibility of being successfully treated and returned to society. And yet that is probably what will happen, and the next time she commits such an act, everyone will throw up their hands and wonder aloud how this could come to be. As if they couldn't see it coming.
Lawyers will always try for an insanity deal. There is a guy in GA that killed a cop, wounded another, and his court appointed attorney keeps saying he's mentally unstable because of a rough childhood. The KILLER says in court that he's not mentally ill, he did kill the officer and wants to represent himself. He's had multiple outbursts in court because of the lawyer's insistance on a mental defect.
She has a history of violence and is not a racist, that was just a story to protect her from a murder charge.
She has violently attacked her live in boyfriend, a total stranger taking out his garbage who was a fireman and a white man, and was "evaluated" and let out on the streets just a short while ago.
She was 21 when she attacked the fireman taking out his garbage, screaming at him that he had (not true, by the way) had sex with her mother. He had to hit her with his fist to get her off him. Her attacks on other people include those with a knife, yet New York had her out roaming the streets.
Other attacks by this woman are sealed by the courts.
So the question becomes why is New York concerned about how large the sugared drinks are that consumers drink yet have no concern about dangerous mental patients they turn out on the streets?
Jack-364934 you have a very serious problem. If you don't trust the media, don't listen or view newspapers or televisions. It's that simple. Just because you are sick, don't try to make others like you.
Check her pedigree.Likely the offspring of an illegal from a generation or two ago
LET ME GUESS....THEY'LL BLAME THIS KILLING ON GUNS TOO right? Funny how they're ALL OVER the Mental Health issue RIGHT AWAY when it's NOT about guns..so hypocritical...just like actors and actresses calling for gun control when they themselves peddle the violent culture
Another article about this says her family had to call the police several times on her since 2005 because she wasn't taking her meds. She was arrested before for randomly beating up a man in her neighborhood. He said he got two restraining orders against her after that because she seemed dangerous.
http://news.msn.com/us/suspect-in-nyc-subway-death-arrested-before
Since all this was going on, why was she even walking the streets? The authorities should have had her hospitalized. It seems like it was clear before this happened that she was dangerous.
As more Americans lose their homes the anger will continue to rise. Mental illness is a problem and becomes worse for those who become stressed. Then you have those who are just angry at the way our government has sold the American people out in favor of foreign interests.
This is somewhat off topic but if Americans are nuked with one of the suitcase bombs that some experts believe are in the US then Muslims will be attacked in mass numbers. Indians will also be attacked as they will be seen as Muslim as well. Obama will not be able to protect them from the rage. It is not a question of if but when the attack comes.
If only people would bother to learn that India is not part of the middle east, most Indians are not Muslims (the victim here was not either), and Hindus are not the same as Muslims (far from it), AND that Hindus / Indians had nothing to do with 9/11.
That's as ignorant as if a white American went to visit a non-white country, and everyone there thought he was the same as someone from the Soviet Union (I know it's Russia now, but it makes more of a contrast).
Enraged people don't think they react. When people feel threatened they make snap judgements based on stereotypical models. The human species is wired this way and it comes from our genes and survival. Ignorance has little to do with this fight or flight instinct. Some people are able to keep their heads and not just react while others are overwhelmed by fear and anger.