Video: Man randomly pushes woman into subway car in Brooklyn
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN, New York City (WABC) -- A man who randomly pushed a woman into a subway car at a station in Brooklyn Wednesday is in custody and facing charges.
It happened on the Coney Island-bound platform of the DeKalb Avenue station in Downtown Brooklyn around 7:40 p.m.
The man was caught on video saying "What? What?" as he pushed two men on the platform, before pushing the unidentified woman into the stopped subway train, knocking her head onto the side of the car.
She did not require medical attention and did not file a police report, but police decided to proactively seek out known subway recidivists and see if any of them are responsible for the incident.
Authorities announced later Thursday afternoon that Isaiah Thompson, a 28-year-old transit recidivist offender, was arrested in connection to the incident.
Thompson was charged with assault, felonious reckless endangerment, menacing and criminal trespassing.
Thompson had previously been charged in connection to three out of 37 incidents of pulling emergency brakes on the New York City subway.
Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked about it and other attacks in the transit system, and he said police will respond to any incident but cautioned that crime is at record lows and New Yorkers "do not think it's the 1980s."
"It's not the 1980s," he said. "We are never going back there. So we see a problem, we address the problem. That's the simple reality."
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