Homicide in Harlem subway shove death of a Good Samaritan
A partial building collapse in Manhattan on Wednesday sent bricks raining onto the street below, wrecking a car and injuring one person, officials said.
Bricks showered down from the top parapet of 203 E. 38th St. near Third Ave. in Midtown about 11:50 a.m.
Video of the collapse shows the bricks falling in a rolling succession as part of the facade peeled away from the building.
The bricks smashed the back window and dented the trunk of a parked Lincoln Town car with Taxi and Limousine Commission plates.
“Emergency personnel are on the scene of a building collapse in the area,” the city’s Office of
Emergency Management said on its website. “Expect the presence of debris, smoke, dust, emergency vehicles, and traffic in the area.”
Responding firefighters and EMTs cordoned off the area and treated a person at the scene suffering minor injuries.
The city Department of Buildings was investigating, officials said.
The death of a Harlem Good Samaritan who was pushed off a subway platform while breaking up a fight as a train barreled into the station has been ruled a homicide, police said Wednesday.
Dwayne “Bilal” Brown, 57, of Harlem, intervened Friday between a man and two teenage girls fighting on the downtown platform at the 125th St.Lenox Ave. station, cops said.
When Brown (photo) stepped into the fray, the unidentified man pushed him as a No. 2 train roared into the station. Brown lost his balance, and fell between two cars as the train was still moving, witnesses said.
The train wedged Brown’s head and left arm between the bottom of a car and the edge of the platform, cops and passengers said.
Friends believe Brown’s death was due to him trying to protect the teenagers.
“He was always a guy who looked out for others,” said Kevin Baker, 58, Brown’s best friend for more than 40 years. “He was always protective, always made sure everyone was secure.”
There were no cameras on the downtown platform, but investigators are using video from the uptown side to search for clues about what happened. “We’re looking at cameras from the uptown side and trying to piece it together,” said a police source.
Cops said the man involved in the original fight fled the scene and is being sought.
The girls he was fighting with also left the scene, but did not flee, a police source said. They are also being sought.
Friends were shaken that such a gentle man suffered so violent a death.
“He was a mama’s boy,” said Baker, of Brown, whose mother died more than a decade ago.
“He used to tear up talking about his mother. He was always good to her. That was just Bilal.”