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Alleged Subway Shover Gives Bizarre Interview: "If I Smoked A Blunt That Day, I Wouldn't Have Pushed Him"
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jan 19, 2013
Modified Jan 19, 2013
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jan 19, 2013
Modified Jan 19, 2013
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Last month, a 31-year-old woman was accused of fatally shoving a man onto the subway tracks in Queens in one of two very high-profile subway shovings. The NY Post sat down for an exclusive jailhouse interview with Erika Menendez, who has been accused of shoving 46-year-old Sunando Sen into the path of a 7 train, allegedly because she hates "Hindus and Muslims" because of 9/11. She expanded on that in the long, confusing interview; among other things, she said she self-medicates for her bipolar disorder with pot: “If I smoked a blunt that day, I wouldn’t have pushed him.”
“My mind was just racing that day. I was mad. I was just angry,” she told them. “I was homeless. I was hungry. I was fighting with my boyfriend. [Sen] came running up the stairs, and I just got up and pushed him.” She added that he “was trying to shake me off” at the last second to no avail. As for the whole "Hindus and Muslims" part, she said she was most angry about the destruction of the World Trade Center: “I’m not mad about the people. I’m mad because I liked the buildings,” Menendez said. “I just wanted to hurt Muslims and Hindus ever since [9/11].”
The Post says she was "emotionless" for most of the interview, but when the subjects of Muslims or Hindus came up, "her eyes lit up and she became very animated"—she told them, “I’ve been beating up Muslims and Hindus for a long time. I just want to hurt them. I would punch them." Menendez's former boyfriend previously said that she has long hated Muslims: "She would say, ‘I can't stand being around these people,’" John Goelz said. "I kept telling her you can't blame every person you see."
She has been charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime, and faces 25 years to life in prison if found guilty.
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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