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Subway Shoving Suspect Reportedly Says Victim "Wouldn't Stay Away, And I Pushed Him"
By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 5, 2012
Modified Dec 5, 2012
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NBC New York
By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 5, 2012
Modified Dec 5, 2012
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Yesterday, police took a suspect into custody for fatally shoving a Queens father into the subway tracks at the 49th Street N/R/Q station in Manhattan on Monday. While police have not identified him until he is formally charged—the police are still waiting to do a lineup with witnesses; NY Times reports that NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said "that the suspect had implicated himself in the crime"—the Post says the suspect is 30-year-old Naeem Davis.
The Post adds that Davis, a "homeless drifter," "has worked at the Pax eatery in Times Square and gets paid to help street vendors haul their tables to local garages." A source says that Davis told police that he and the victim, Ki-Suck Han, 58, "bumped into each and started arguing before getting to the turnstiles," and that they continued to bicker at the platform, "He said the victim was harassing him and that he pushed him onto the tracks." Davis allegedly said, "I begged him to leave me alone, and he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t stay away, and I pushed him."
An unnamed police official also told the Times, "I don’t think this is a crazy man throwing people under the train... there [was] interaction between the two of them." Davis was apprehended yesterday afternoon at 50th Street and 7th Avenue:
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Cops were apparently tipped off about Davis by a Gray Line tours worker. The Daily News reports:
The Gray Line employee, who did not want to be identified, said he’s known the suspect for years. He said Davis is a street hustler who often helps area vendors push their carts from a nearby storage facility in exchange for money.
“When I saw the picture, I told detectives I know this guy,” the worker told The News.
When he spotted Davis Tuesday, he flagged down a cop and said, “This is the guy you guys are looking for.”
Newsstand vendor Liz Willis said she also recognized Davis from images cops took from video surveillance footage.
She saw Davis right before he was arrested and noticed that he had shaved the beard and short dreadlocks he normally sports.
She showed him the picture on nearly every newspaper at her stand at 50th and Seventh. “I told him this looks like you,” said Willis.
“He said, ‘It’s not me,” she said.
Han, who lived in Elmhurst with his wife and daughter, had been heading into Manhattan to renew his Korean passport. Reports have said that he and his wife had argued before he left and that he may have been intoxicated (toxicology tests are being done). Han was struck by the subway and pronounced dead at Roosevelt Hospital.
Tagged
fatal subway shoving
ki-suck han
manhattan
naeem davis
subway
subway shoving
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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