GUIDING LIGHT
As terror hit subway, worker got people out
When a pipe bomb detonated in a station tunnel near Times Square, Sean Monroe wasn’t a first responder — but he was the first to aid rattled commuters.
Monroe was sweeping the floor of the station by the Port Authority Bus Terminal during the morning rush hour on Dec. 11 when a terror attack by a man police identified as Akayed Ullah blew up in the suspect’s face. No one was killed, but three commuters suffered injuries.
The low-tech device partially detonated mere steps from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority worker. But instead of getting caught up in the panic, Monroe guided more than a dozen frightened rush hour commuters to an exit — and safety.
“I said, ‘Come back, you’re running the wrong way, you have to run towards the exit, which is this way,’ ” Monroe recalled in an interview with the Daily News. “Everybody just started high-tailing it.”
The Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, man stayed in the station until Port Authority and NYPD officers could arrive.
It was a selfless act by a station cleaner unsure of what might happen next, and it earned Monroe gratitude and admiration.
It also brought him a nomination to be a Daily News Hometown Hero. Each year, the newspaper honors people whose above-and-beyond efforts make, save or improve the lives of others.
The awards are open this year to people who work in the transit, education, public service and medical fields, as well as to youth.
The MTA honored Monroe, 33, for his heroics, along with other transit workers who acted selflessly on the job.
“Sean’s quick thinking and calm demeanor helped us keep customers safe that day, which is paramount to everything we do here at New York City Transit,” said Sheila Hutson, assistant chief officer for station environment and operations. “To us, he’s already a Hometown Hero.”
For Monroe, Dec. 11 began like every other day — he showed up for his shift at 6 a.m. on the station mezzanine and recalled walking through the station to clean up food a commuter had spilled. And then there was an explosion.
“The first thing I’m thinking is, ‘OK, I don’t know what’s going on, but I have to get everybody around me, including myself, out of here,” Monroe said.
While directing frightened riders to the nearest exit, he stopped a woman from getting her shoe and wallet near the injured body of the suspected bomber. Instead, he ran into the tunnel to retrieve them.
“My first instinct was, she needs her wallet and her shoe,” he said. “I just wanted her to get away from the scene as fast as possible.”
After the police at the station and his fellow transit workers were safe, Monroe said he had told his mom the attack she heard about happened at the station where he worked.
“My mother was very concerned,” Monroe said. Still, “she tells me that she was very proud.”