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28 March 2024

Subway killing: Indian killed by American woman in hate crime

Published
By Staff with Agencies

US: A 31-year-old American woman has been charged with murder as a hate crime after shoving a New York man to his death in front of an oncoming subway train, authorities said Saturday.

The man who lost his life in what is being termed as ‘subway killing’ has been identified as Sunando Sen. While there remain some confusion in local media over the person’s nationality, Nirupama Rao, India’s Ambassador to the US, has confirmed in a tweet that Sen was an Indian citizen.

“RIP Sunando Sen, citizen of India who has been taken away from us in an act of murder most senseless and foul. R Consulate NY is in touch with friends of deceased who are arranging cremation on Monday afternoon. Apparently no family in India,” Rao tweeted this morning from her Twitter handle Ambassador Rao (@NMenonRao).

The suspect, a 31-year-old woman named Erica Menendez, was motivated by hatred of Muslims and Hindus, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.

“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,” she told police, according to a news report in The News Tribe [https://www.thenewstribe.com/2012/12/30/sunando-sen-death-erika-menendez-accused-of-nyc-subway-hate-crime-murder/].

Menendez, who is awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court, faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted. The victim, 46-year-old Sunando Sen, was born in India and raised Hindu, a roommate told The New York Times [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/29/nyregion/man-pushed-to-his-death-under-train-in-queens.html?_r=0].

Like many other busy New Yorkers, Sunando Sen was peering out over the tracks on an elevated subway stop in Queens on Thursday evening, awaiting the next train.

“What he did not see, the authorities said, was a woman approaching from behind who had been sitting on a bench and who had been heard mumbling to herself. Before Mr. Sen could react, the woman pushed him into the path of a No. 7 train roaring into the 40th Street-Lowery Street subway station in Sunnyside. Mr. Sen was crushed under the train,” the NYT report states.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said that according to witnesses’ accounts, there was no contact on the platform between the attacker and the victim immediately before the fatal shove. He said Sen was looking out over the tracks when his attacker approached him.

The attack occurred so quickly, with the train already barreling into the station, that the man had little time to react and bystanders had no time to try to help, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.

Sen was hit by the first car and his body was pinned under the second car before the 11-car train came to a stop.

Police released surveillance camera video footage via Twitter showing a woman running from the scene.

“The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter’s worst nightmare — being suddenly and senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.

“The victim was allegedly shoved from behind and had no chance to defend himself. Beyond that, the hateful remarks allegedly made by the defendant and which precipitated the defendant’s actions can never be tolerated by a civilised society.”

Man intentionally crashes at 100mph, then sits on girlfriend to kill her

US: A central Pennsylvania man is charged with suffocating his 17-year-old girlfriend after injuring her by intentionally driving into a guardrail at about 100 miles per hour in the middle of the night.
 
Police filed homicide and other charges Friday against Benjamin Daniel Klinger for the Dec. 4 death of Sammi Heller on an interstate near Manheim.
 
Police allege Klinger purposely crashed, then killed Heller by sitting on top of her head until she asphyxiated.
 
The person answering the telephone at Klinger's Elizabethtown home on Thursday said Klinger didn't have a lawyer and declined to comment.
 
Heller allegedly told a friend that Klinger regularly tried to scare her while driving and that he'd threatened to kill them both in a crash.
 
Klinger is also charged with aggravated assault, drug offenses and driving violations. (AP)
 
Man beats woman over Christmas gift

US: Madison police have arrested a man who allegedly beat a woman because he was upset with a Christmas gift she bought.
 
Police say the 23-year-old Madison man was arguing Sunday with a 30-year-old woman.
 
A police spokesman tells The Capital Times the man said the woman had been out shopping too long and had bought the wrong Christmas gift.
 
Officers were sent after getting reports of a man with a gun. When police arrived they saw a man running from the building. He jumped over a fence but was stopped by officers.
 
The police spokesman says people told officers the man allegedly battered the woman in a hallway of the apartment and that he was carrying a gun case.
 
Officers recovered cash, marijuana, ammunition and a 12-gauge shotgun.