The maniac suspected of randomly shoving a woman into a moving Manhattan train — leaving her with life-threatening injuries — was busted in New Jersey on Thursday, law enforcement sources said.
Sabir Jones, 39 — who allegedly pushed the unsuspecting 30-year-old victim into a departing downtown F train at the Fifth Avenue/53rd Street station around noon Wednesday — was picked up in Newark and taken to a local hospital, the sources said.
He was not immediately charged.
It came as sources also said Thursday that Jones was believed to have attacked another straphanger at the same Midtown station just minutes before he allegedly shoved the woman — who hit her head on the train and then tumbled down onto the tracks, causing critical injuries.
Jones allegedly slugged a 26-year-old man getting off a southbound E train in what also appeared to be a random attack, the sources said. That victim didn’t report the crime until nearly 8 p.m. — after seeing footage of Jones on the news, the sources said.
Jones was mumbling to himself as he allegedly pushed the young woman into the train, the sources said.
She underwent surgery — during which a significant portion of her skull was removed — and she remained hospitalized on Thursday.
Jones appears to have been reported missing in Newark back in November 2021, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
The missing man, who was 37 at the time, was diagnosed with depression and psychosis, according to a Patch report about the disappearance.
He was known to sleep at Newark Penn Station and frequent McCarter Highway, the outlet reported.
A source who was granted access to some of Jones’ social service records told the New York Times the suspected assailant has a history of homelessness, mental illness and drug abuse.
Outreach workers from the Bowery Residents’ Committee interacted with him back in November 2021 at a Manhattan subway station, the Times reported.
There, he told the worker he’d been homeless for four years, used K2 and took psychiatric medications, the source told the paper.
An outreach worker encountered him a few weeks later at a station in Queens, determining that he’d be a suitable candidate for a less restrictive homeless shelter known as “safe haven,” because he “was able to demonstrate non-threatening behavior” and “communicated effectively with a friendly demeanor,” the Times reported.
However, it does not appear that Jones ever went to the shelter, the source said.
Jones has one prior arrest from last December for allegedly riding between subway cars on a J train at Norwood Avenue in Brooklyn, and then refusing to leave the station, police sources told The Post.
He was charged with obstruction of governmental administration, resisting arrest, violation of local law and disorderly conduct, sources said.
Jones has also been connected to an incident involving threats to a business on Chrystie Street near Broome Street on the Lower East Side, according to the sources.
He has two previous “emotionally disturbed person” incidents, the sources said.
After the shove on Wednesday, someone “immediately” called 911 as other good Samaritans helped pull the victim back up onto the platform, NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper said at a press briefing.
The gravely injured woman was heading either to or from work at the time of the attack, according to Kemper and police sources.
Investigators identified the suspected shover “almost immediately based off video surveillance” from the station, Kemper said.
During the same Wednesday press briefing, MTA Chairman Janno 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.”
Additional reporting by Steven Vago
