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Dead man left on Brooklyn platform for hours during week of major subway delays
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Aug 1, 2025
Modified Aug 1, 2025
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Stephen Rex Brown / Gothamist
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Aug 1, 2025
Modified Aug 1, 2025
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Subway riders faced hellish commutes this week due to power failures that disrupted service over two separate days. But riders at one Brooklyn station were jolted by a different type of horror.
As the morning rush got underway at the Prospect Park Station on Wednesday, riders waiting to catch Manhattan-bound B and Q trains looked across the tracks to see a body under a black sheet. The deceased 31-year-old man had been pushed into a departing train during a fight around 2:30 a.m., police said.
His body was still there hours later, along with police attending to the crime scene. A photo obtained by Gothamist showed several police officers milling about on the Coney Island-bound platform near the man's covered body, which authorities said had suffered severe head trauma. The body's arm dangled off the edge of the platform, making for a disturbing scene.
“ I didn't think it was just going to be laying there like that,” said Andrew Shepard, 40. “It was covered, but there was an arm hanging out into the track area and it was shocking. It was not how you really want to start your commute.”
The Prospect-Lefferts Gardens resident said friends had alerted him that someone had died at the station overnight. But he was stunned to see the body hadn’t been moved by 8:20 a.m. The incident disrupted subway service.
Some commuters were taking pictures. Others were upset.
“Eventually a train came and it was crammed, but I got into work, probably a half-hour late. But at that point it didn't really matter, because I just witnessed a dead person on the platform in the morning,” Shepard said.
Police have not released the man’s name.
The MTA declined to comment and referred all questions to the NYPD, which was in charge of the crime scene. An MTA official suspected the officers were waiting for the medical examiner to arrive to remove the body.
There are no arrests and the NYPD is still investigating. The NYPD did not respond to questions about why it took so long to close the crime scene.
The gruesome sight was just one of several indignities commuters faced during this week’s heat wave. On Tuesday and Thursday a transformer failed at the West Fourth Street subway station during the morning rush. Service was still screwed up into the afternoon following both incidents.
The sight of the body shook another Prospect Lefferts Gardens resident, 42-year-old Ayinde Bennett. He wished the police and MTA had handled it better.
“ I think that's unfair to New Yorkers, I think we bear the brunt of just like, 'It's New York deal with it.' But some of this s--- is scarring, man. Like dead bodies on your commute to summer camp as a kid, to work,” Bennett said. “That's not something we should just be forced to get used to and just have to deal with. I think it impacted me in a deeper way than I realized at the time, because it still kind of stuck with me two days, three days later.”
Tagged
brooklyn
transportation
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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