A 30-year-old woman was critically injured Wednesday when a stranger randomly shoved her into a moving train at a Manhattan subway station, cops and sources said.
The victim hit her head on the departing downtown F train and then tumbled onto the roadbed at the Fifth Avenue/53rd Street station just after noon, according to the NYPD and police sources.
The suspect was mumbling to himself as he pushed her into the train, the sources said.
He was identified by NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper as Sabir Jones, 39, a man with an apparent history of mental illness who remained on the loose late Wednesday.
After the attacker suddenly shoved the woman, someone “immediately” called 911 as other good Samaritans helped pull her back up onto the platform, Kemper said at a press briefing.
The young woman – who was either coming or going from work at the time of the attack – was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition, cops said.
She underwent surgery — where a significant portion of her skull was removed, according to Kemper and the sources.
Investigators identified the suspected shover “almost immediately based off video surveillance” from the station, Kemper told reporters.
Jones – whose last known address is in Maryland – has one prior arrest from last December for allegedly riding between subway cars and then refusing to leave the station, sources said.
He also has one previous “emotionally disturbed person” incident, according to the sources.
“New Yorkers put up with a lot … But when young people, ambitious young people, who are just trying to live their lives, are subject to random attacks, we can’t put up with it,” MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said at the briefing.
Lieber called on the mental health system to properly evaluate the conditions of “these people who are having a disproportionate impact on the public space,” adding, “we feel for them, but we need for them to get in treatment and out of the public space.”
Mental health professionals “have to figure out how to get these people out of the public space and into treatment, so that they get in better condition for themselves. And more important for New Yorkers who are just trying to live their lives,” he said.
“In the last year, we have made tremendous progress on subway crime,” the chairman added. “But that’s no conciliation to the family of this young woman.”
The incident comes less than a day after a 51-year-old man was repeatedly stabbed in another unprovoked attack on the steps of a Bronx subway station, authorities said.
The victim was going up the stairs to exit the Fordham Road B and D train station around 8:25 p.m. Tuesday when an assailant randomly plunged a knife into his shoulder and leg, cops said.
He was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The attacker was still at large Wednesday.
