Subway psycho nailed
Hero riders team up to grab shover
A group of brave straphangers banded together to stop an “Allahu
akbar”- shouting maniac who shoved someone onto the tracks at a busy Noho subway station Thursday.
Six heroic commuters called for police and encircled the man in order to block his escape, after he swiped a straphanger’s cellphone then pushed another off the F train platform at the Broadway-Lafayette station around 10 a.m.
In footage of the incident, the man — identified by sources as homeless man Nathaniel Brown, 41 — can be seen pacing with agitation as he tries to evade the good guys.
At one point, he rips off his shirt to wipe the sweat from his brow before trading blows with a passerby who tries to block his escape.
He can also be seen bull-rushing a phalanx of Good Samaritans — but as he charges upstairs, another quickthinking commuter comes down the steps and body-checks him backwards onto the ground.
Undeterred, he tries to get back up, but another straphanger hooks his ankle and sends him back to the ground.
“Call the cops!” someone yells as the video ends.
Police showed up at 10:15 a.m. and collared the man, who also managed to injure an arresting officer’s wrist in the process, according to cops.
He was shouting “Allahu akbar” — a common Muslim prayer meaning God is greatest that has also been co-opted by religious extremists and terrorists — when he was arrested, sources said.
Police sources say the drama began when Brown allegedly robbed someone’s cellphone on an uptown No. 6 train between the Canal and Spring street stations.
He then got into an argument with a 30-year-old stranger at Broadway-Lafayette, where the F train connects with the No. 6’s Bleecker Street station, at 10 a.m. and shoved him onto the tracks — fracturing the man’s hip, cops said.
The fiend then spat on a 25-yearold who tried to help the first victim, according to police.
The 30-year-old was taken to Bellevue hospital, cops said.
The Post confirmed the older victim is an illustrator for The New York Times, but is withholding his identity, because he was not available for a comment.
He was wearing a full neck brace when The Post visited him in the hospital Thursday afternoon.
“He’ll still have use of his hands,” a friend told The Post. “It’s pretty much best-case scenario for, you know, getting punched in the face and pushed onto the tracks.”
Brown, meanwhile, was taken to an area hospital, where he was in police custody Thursday evening.
Cops are investigating any possible terror ties, according to sources.