Lunatic accused of shoving commuter into path of NYC subway charged with attempted murder
The lunatic accused of randomly shoving a Big Apple straphanger onto Manhattan subway tracks Tuesday afternoon was charged with attempted murder, cops said.
Kamel Hawkins, 23, was also charged with second-degree assault after he allegedly pushed a complete stranger onto the tracks at the 18th Street station shortly after 1:30 p.m., according to police.
The terrifying ordeal, which was captured on chilling video footage obtained by The Post, showed the hooded brute roaming the edge of the platform while the victim appeared to be looking at his phone as the train pulled into the station.
Without warning, the suspect pushed the man onto the tracks, with the unsuspecting straphanger disappearing under the train.
The victim, an unidentified 45-year-old man, was struck by an incoming 1 train and miraculously survived the harrowing afternoon assault with just a head injury, cops said.
“He’s alive! He’s alive!” one relieved bystander can be heard shouting as firefighters worked to pull the injured man from between subway cars, the footage showed.
Hawkins, who has had several run-ins with the NYPD in the past, was busted hours later above ground near Columbus Circle, cops said.
The accused shover was charged with assault in June 2019 after slamming a cop to the ground on Flushing Avenue when the officer spotted him acting disorderly, leaving the cop with a back injury, according to sources.
“Anyone who attacks a cop in full uniform is capable of doing far worse to defenseless civilians,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry told The Post.
“Every time our justice system drops the ball on an assault on a police officer, it puts every New Yorker in danger,” said Henry.
Hawkins also has an open case in Brooklyn on assault, harassment and weapons possession charges for an incident on Oct. 12.
Sources said he was released without bail in another case in 2020 despite prosecutors asking he be held, though it remains unclear what the charges were in that case.
Tuesday’s incident is the latest in a series of startling transit attacks in New York City, including two slashings on Sunday and the gruesome Dec. 22 torching death of a sleeping straphanger on an F train Brooklyn.
Concerns over subway violence resulted in Gov. Kathy Hochul deploying more than 1,000 National Guardsmen into the transit system for the holiday season and beyond.
The spike in violence also prompted the Guardian Angels to begin patrolling the subways for the first time since 2020.
The group, founded by former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa in 1979, began the patrols on Sunday and said three-member Angel teams will patrol troublesome subway lines around the clock.
