Subway suspect ordered tested
Erika Menendez, 31, accused of pushing man in front of train.
NEW YORK — A woman suspected in the death of an immigrant who was pushed off a New York City subway platform has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Erika Menendez, 31, was arraigned Saturday night on a charge of murder as a hate crime. She had told police she has hated Muslims since Sept. 11 and thought the victim was one. Judge Gia Morris ordered Menendez held without bail and given a mental health exam.
Menendez is charged in the death of Sunando Sen, who was crushed by a train in Queens on Thursday night. Friends and co-workers said Sen, a 46-year-old Indian immigrant, was Hindu.
“I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I’ve been beating them up,” Menendez told police, according to the district attorney’s office.
Menendez was incoherent at her arraignment in Queens criminal court, at one point laughing so hard that the judge told her defense lawyer, “You’re going to have to have your client stop laughing.”
Menendez admitted shoving Sen, who was pushed from behind, authorities said. She was arrested after a tip by a passer-by who saw her on a street and thought she looked like the woman in a surveillance video released by police.
A call to Menendez’s attorney was not immediately returned Sunday.
Angel Luis Santiago, who once worked at the Queens building where Menendez’s mother and stepfather live, said he was shocked by her arrest.
“It surprised me what she did,” he said. “She never acted that way.”
Menendez’s next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 14.
Sen was the second man to die after being pushed in front of a New York City subway train this month. Ki-Suck Han was killed in a midtown Manhattan subway station on Dec. 3. A photo of Han clinging to the edge of the platform a split second before he was struck by a train was published on the front page of the New York Post, causing an uproar about whether the photographer, who was catching a train, or anyone else should have tried to help him.
A homeless man was arrested and charged with murder in that case and is awaiting trial. He claimed he acted in self-defense.
It’s unclear whether anyone tried, or could have tried, to help Sen on Thursday.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged residents Friday to keep Sen’s death in perspective as he touted new historic lows in the city’s annual homicide and shooting totals.