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Video: Armed Man Hijacks Subway Train
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 26, 2011
Modified Jul 26, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 26, 2011
Modified Jul 26, 2011
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An emotionally disturbed man wielding a screwdriver allegedly climbed through the window of a 5 train motorman's cab in the Bronx on Friday afternoon and ordered the motorman to drive the train or be killed. Motorman Darryl George, 36, tells the Daily News he heard sounds of a disturbance while the crowded train was in the 149th Street station and "opened my window to see what the situation was. He said someone with a gun was trying to kill him." When George turned to radio a supervisor, Richard Arrocho, 42, clambered through the window.
"He said, 'Move the train or I'm going to f-----g kill you,'" George recalls. "He wouldn't let me open the door. He pulled a screwdriver and tried to stab me. The video—recorded in proper horizontal cell phone aspect ratio by witness Ronald Baker!—starts as the two scuffle inside the cab, and a Good Samaritan on the outside screams, "Driver, open the bloodclot door!" (For those unfamiliar with Jamaican Creole vulgarity, "bloodclot" is one of the worst pejoratives in the book, even more offensive than "baldhead vampire" or "frat boy with Bob Marley poster.") At any rate, the Daily News edition of the video starts after an annoying commercial interruption:
SPOILER ALERT: After moving the train one station to Jackson Avenue, the motorman was able to escape the cab, and then one of the guys trying to help almost closes the door, which would have left the crazy guy alone at the controls of the subway train. Luckily, the motorman and another Good Samaritan managed to prevent that from happening, and they eventually succeed in calming down Arrocho slightly. When police arrived, he surrendered without incident.
The News reports that Arrocho has a history of mental illness and has been arrested at least 40 times since 1985 on various charges. "I could have lost my life over this," George the motorman said. "You don't expect something like this to happen when you go to work." Perhaps, but most NYC subway passengers kinda do expect something like this to happen on their way to work.
Tagged
5 train
MTA
subway
subway fight
taking of pelham 123
the bronx
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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