Man shoved in front of NYC subway, crushed

• Tweet

NEW YORK, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- A New York City man was killed after an apparently deranged panhandler shoved him into the path of an oncoming subway train.

Ki Suk Han, 58, of Queens, was on the southbound Q train platform at the 49th Street Station in Times Square in Manhattan when he began to quarrel with a man witnesses described as screaming and making a scene while also begging for money about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. Han told the man to leave the subway station and the two began arguing. Then the man grabbed Han and threw him onto the tracks. As the train approached horrified onlookers tried in vain to get the conductor to stop.

Han scrambled to his feet but couldn't get out of the deep train recess. As the train screeched into the station the conductor was unable to stop and Han was pinned between the train and the platform, The New York Post said Tuesday. A second-year resident at a local hospital was among those in the station and rushed to Han's care, but she said his position made it impossible to administer CPR. He died a short time later.

A Post freelance photographer was also among those on the platform. R. Umar Abbasi said he tried using his camera flash to alert the train conductor to stop, to no avail.

Abbasi said the train "crushed [Han] like a rag doll."

Han left behind a wife and daughter.

Police continued to search for the suspect, described as a black man in his 30s or 40s with short dreadlocks wearing a white T-shirt and soiled blue jeans.