Another person shoved onto New York City subway tracks days after Michelle Go's death

Another person was pushed onto the tracks of a New York subway station Sunday - a little more than a week after an Asian American woman died after being shoved in front of a train in Times Square.

The two incidents, which the New York Police Department said were both unprovoked, have thrust the issue of subway violence back into the spotlight and sparked widespread calls for officials to do more to protect subway riders.

A 62-year-old man whose name has not been released publicly was pushed onto the tracks of a southbound train at Fulton Street subway station in Lower Manhattan, the NYPD said in a statement to The Washington Post, adding that he made contact with the first car of the train and fell onto the tracks.

The man, who sustained a leg laceration, was taken to NY Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital. Police said there have been no arrests in connection with the incident.

It comes shortly after 40-year-old Michelle Alyssa Go was approached from behind and pushed to her death on the tracks Jan. 15. The attack sent shock waves through the city and the Asian American community.

Police identified Go's attacker as Martial Simon, 61, a homeless man with a history of violence and mental health issues, and charged him with second-degree murder. A Manhattan judge ordered that Simon undergo a mental health evaluation. Shortly before Go was targeted, another woman noticed Simon acting suspiciously and later told police she drew away from him, afraid he might push her onto the tracks, the New York Times reported.

The attacks could increase the pressure on New York Mayor Eric Adams, D, who pledged to do more to fight crime during his campaign last year. Adams, along with Gov. Kathy Hochul, D, announced plans to boost policing on subway systems and outreach to homeless people, including on trains.

"We should not wait for someone to carry out a dangerous action when we know they are on the station in the first place," Adams said, adding that specialist teams would be deployed to prevent attacks and offer support to those in need.

The New York subway system saw an increase in pushing assaults last year despite overall ridership being down. According to the NYPD, 461 felony assaults were reported on the subway system in 2021, of which 30 involved a person being pushed onto the subway tracks. That's an increase from the year before, when there were 26 reported subway-pushing incidents.

Police are aware of five assaults so far this year in which a person was pushed onto the tracks, Edward Riley, an NYPD spokesman, told The Post.

Adams did not immediately reply to a request for comment but said in the wake of Go's death that he understands many in the city don't feel safe on the subway. "We know we have a job to do. . . . We're going to drive down crime, and we're going to make sure New Yorkers feel safe in our subway system, and they don't feel that way now."

City officials say they are also working to combat rising crime and gun violence - a move that comes after a police officer was killed while responding to a domestic incident in Harlem on Friday. The city will "immediately" reinstate a "newer version of modified plainclothes anti-gun unit," Adams told CNN following the incident, as officials said they were working to take guns off the city's streets.

And other incidents in New York's subways have heightened safety concerns: Three transit employees were assaulted in separate incidents on one day in September, the Associated Press reported, also noting that within a few hours on a single subway line in February, there were four separate stabbings - two of them fatal.

Huge crowds gathered at a Times Square vigil in Go's memory, and also in her hometown of Fremont, California.

On social media, some said her death had forced them to rethink how they travel around the city and amplified their anxiety over taking the train.

"Since the rise of anti-Asian violence, I have to confess the narrow two-sided platforms at Fulton St. have caused me anxiety," read one tweet.

Another rider said a combination of "Asian hate" and the coronavirus pandemic had made her feel scared. While police have said there is no evidence that Go's attack was racially motivated, hate crime reporting has also surged among marginalized groups, most notably among Black Americans and Asians and Asian Americans. "