A maniac accused of randomly shoving a Big Apple straphanger onto Manhattan subway tracks has been charged with attempted murder, police announced Tuesday afternoon.
Kamel Hawkins, 23, was also charged with second-degree assault after allegedly pushing a stranger onto the tracks at the 18th Street station just after 1:30 p.m., police said.
Chilling video footage obtained by the Post captures the horrific ordeal, in which a hooded thug appears as the victim appears to be looking at his cellphone as the train enters the station. A man was seen wandering around the edge of the platform.
Without warning, the suspect pushed the man onto the tracks, and the unsuspecting strap disappeared beneath the train.
The victim, an unidentified 45-year-old man, was hit by an incoming train and miraculously survived the afternoon’s harrowing assault with only head injuries, police said.
“He’s alive! He’s alive!” one relieved bystander can be heard shouting as firefighters try to pull the injured man from between subway cars, according to the footage. was heard.
Hawkins had several run-ins with NYPD officers and was arrested hours later on the ground near Columbus Circle, police said.
Shober was charged with assault in June 2019 after a police officer spotted him acting disorderly on a Flushing street and knocked the officer to the ground, injuring the officer in the lower back, officials said.
“Those who attack police officers in uniform can do far worse to defenseless civilians,” Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, told the Post.
“Every time our justice system ignores assaults on police officers, all New Yorkers are at risk,” Henry said.
Hawkins also has an outstanding case in Brooklyn charging him with assault, harassment and weapons possession related to the Oct. 12 incident.
He was released without bail in 2020 despite a request by prosecutors to be detained in another case, but the charges in that case remain unclear, officials said.
Tuesday’s incident is the latest in a series of alarming transit attacks in New York City, including two stabbings on Sunday and the Dec. 22 burning death of a strapper sleeping on an F train in Brooklyn. It is something.
Concerns about subway violence prompted Gov. Cathy Hochul to deploy more than 1,000 National Guard troops to transit systems beyond the holiday season.
Guardian Angels have begun patrolling subways for the first time since 2020 following a spike in violence.
The group, founded in 1979 by former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa, began patrolling Sunday, announcing that a three-member angel team would patrol troubled subway lines 24 hours a day.
