A 30-year-old schizophrenic subway rider has been charged with second-degree murder after pushing a woman Monday (Nov. 7) in front of a train at New York’s Times Square station.
Melanie Liverpool-Turner of St. Albans Queens was immediately taken into police custody after the horrific incident near the uptown 1 train platform. It’s reported the victim, Connie Watton also from Queens, was arguing with Liverpool-Turner before being pushed in front of the train. The New York Daily News reports it was hours later before Watton’s body was removed from the tracks.
“I hear voices. I push people in front of trains,” Liverpool-Turner told cops, according to police sources.
Law enforcement took Liverpool-Turner for psychiatric evaluation at Mount Sinai Beth Israel and are trying to deduce if mental illness was the cause for Monday’s gruesome crime. According to Transport Workers Union Local 100, the train conductor, a 20 year veteran of the MTA, was taken to Mount Sinai West to be treated for emotional trauma.
For many New Yorkers, this case is their worst fear come to pass. The last subway push occurred in 2014 when Kevin Darden, 36, shoved, Wai Kuen Kwok, 61 into the path of a D train at the 167th Street Station in The Bronx. Darden pled guilty to manslaughter and is currently waiting for trial.
Manhattan Chief of Detectives William Aubrey said investigators are combing over footage of the verbal dispute between Liverpool-Turner and Watton and also offered up condolences to the victim’s family.
“It’s a horrible incident, and your heart goes out to this family and this victim,” Aubrey said.