Homeless man arrested for breaking woman’s leg by shoving her onto subway tracks near NYC City Hall
A homeless man was arrested Thursday afternoon for shoving a woman onto the subway tracks in Downtown Manhattan across the street from City Hall, according to the NYPD.
Samuel Junker, 41, whose last address was a White Plains shelter, was arrested in TriBeCa on Broadway near Lispenard St. just before 2 p.m. and charged with felony assault for the unprovoked attack that left the victim with a broken leg, cops said.
The woman was treated at NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital and released.
Police identified Junker Wednesday on surveillance footage at the subway turnstile at the Chambers St. station for the 1, 2 and 3 train lines just after the attack.
He was wearing a ripped and dirty red shirt and jeans and sneakers without laces.
The victim had just entered the station and walked downstairs when Junker shoved her without warning onto the railbed below, cops say.
There was no train pulling into the station at the time and the victim was able to get back to the platform with the help of other straphangers.
The attack was eerily similar to the killing of Michelle Alyssa Go, who was allegedly pushed in front of a subway train in Times Square by Simon Martial, a homeless man with mental health issues.
Right after the attack, Mayor Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to increase the police presence underground and move homeless people out of the subway stations.
