SUBWAY SLAY’
Deadly ‘punch’ by teen
A 65-year-old grandfather of 13 tumbled to his death after he was sucker-punched at a Brooklyn subway station by a teen who later told cops, “the devil made me do it,” law enforcement sources said.
Jacinto Suarez (inset) was waiting for a southbound R train at the busy Jay StreetMetroTech station at about 2:20 p.m. when the 18-year-old began talking to himself and flailing his arms on the platform, the sources said.
Suarez grew alarmed when the teen approached him, so he took out a pen and held it out, asking the youth to step away, the sources said.
The teen backed off, and Suarez continued to wait for his train, sources said.
But the suspect — identified as Edward Cordero — later crept up and allegedly punched Suarez from behind, knocking him onto the tracks.
“The devil made me do it,” the suspect told detectives, a source said.
Cordero was taken into custody at the scene.
“The person started to walk away but then turned around and punched the 65-year-old man,” NYPD Assistant Chief Vincent Coogan told reporters .
“It’s unknown how he was removed from the track, but we believe good Samaritans picked him up and placed him back onto the platform.” Suarez did not come into contact with a train or the third rail. Loved ones said he hit his head in the fall. Before the tragedy, Suarez had been at a Social Security office asking about a tardy check, his family said. Suarez was “joking about it this morning and was like, ‘ I’m going to go down there and I’m not coming home until they give me something,’ and he was on his way back home they said when it happened,” his tearful daughter Tylenea Gonzalez, 34. told The Post.
Suarez, a father of 10, loved cooking and joking.
“He was a pain in the butt, but he was a sweetheart,” Gonzalez said.
“His silliness, his smile, he was always dancing with the kids, cracking jokes.”
Cordero is student at PS 371, a Brooklyn campus that serves students with disabilities, according to police sources. Before the incident, he was overheard in class “talking about the devil,” police sources said
He has previously been arrested seven times for offenses such as criminal mischief, switchblade possession and turnstile jumping.
His mental status is under investigation, police said.