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The subway passenger who pulled the emergency brake during a grisly murder over a seat on the D train claims the attacker was unprovoked. Denouncing previous reports that victim Dwight Johnson had struck suspect Gerardo Sanchez during their dispute, witness Vincent Martinez said the victim — a homeless man who traveled everywhere with his bags — had already moved his duffel bag from the chair when the accused killer snapped.
"He was trying to be nice about it, and then 10 seconds later, he got stabbed," Martinez, a 25-year-old security guard who was on his way home from work, told the Daily News. "He was screaming, 'I'm dying, I'm dying,' and there was blood coming out of his mouth and spraying out his neck…Before you know it, everyone is on one side screaming and yelling...The killer was following him and grabbing him, saying, 'You should have let me sit down.'"
Martinez tells the paper he started "banging and banging on the door to where the guy drives the train, but he didn't answer," so he pulled the emergency brake, bringing the train to a halt in the tunnel between the Rockefeller Center and Seventh Avenue stations in Midtown at around 2 am. The motorman then opened the door and Martinez forced his way inside. "I told him, 'Some guy just got stabbed and he's bleeding all over the place,'" Martinez said. "He's like, 'You're not supposed to [pull the brake], you should have just let the train go.'"
The conductor radioed police and restarted the train about a minute later, and cops told the train crew to keep the doors shut until officers arrived. Martinez stayed in the cab with the conductor until the train pulled into the station, and when questioned by police, he "denied pulling the emergency break out of fear he would be arrested, and told cops he didn't see everything," the paper reports.
While many have questioned the decision to lock straphangers in a car with a knife-toting murderer, Mayor Bloomberg defended the choice. "If all the doors are open and everyone runs in every direction...you have a murderer back on the street," he said. "[That] doesn't make a lot of sense to me."
Though friends of the suspect say that Sanchez, 36, has been acting strangely and abusing pain medication since a fall at work two weeks ago, Martinez claims that accused killer was looking for trouble. "I don't how much Vicodin you take or Tylenol with codeine he's taking," Martinez said. "He had a steak knife in his pocket. He wanted to stab somebody." According to the Post, the suspect's aunt, Lisa Rivera, 45, agrees. "Oh, no, what did he do this time? Did he finally kill someone? I've been afraid of that for a long time."
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"He's wanted to stab somebody"
No reason to alert the authorities or anything -- just let it go. You don't want to be a snitch, do you?
I think you misread--the quote is "He wanted to stab somebody." and it is from the witness, who didn't know the attacker at all before the incident.
It's not illegal to want or think something.
You want to be reported for every illegal thing that crosses your mind? I'd love to climb the Empire State building. That's illegal - are you going to report me because of it?
Where have you been living; that's the point of hate crime legislation. bad on you for 'thinking' anything.
Right, right, my bad. I guess I should go in for that lobotomy so the state can think for me.
If I know you're thinking about stabbing someone (and let's be clear: if someone in your family or circle of friends knows you're spoiling to stab someone, chances are it is NOT a passing fancy), AND you carry a knife around with you, AND you've been acting "weirdly" in the past couple weeks, yes someone should definitely call the cops on you.
The driver of the train is NOT the Conductor, he is the Operator.
Yep, the conductor is in the middle of the train. This was the first car, so it was the "motorman" or the official MTA title, the train operator.
But Ben's a Pittsburgh kid; hasn't learned these NYC things yet.
Conductor is the guy in the middle?
So he's banging and banging on the motorman's door, screaming, and he only pulls the brake when he doesn't answer. That answers that. Why not at least poke your head out to see what the matter is?
Well there is a good possibility he didn't hear the knocking. Train crew members almost always wear ear protection.
Well, maybe because the motorman was busy driving the train? Maybe because the motorman can't physically reach the door without letting go of the train controls? (That's a good thing, btw).
"If all the doors are open and everyone runs in every direction...you have a murderer back on the street," he said. "[That] doesn't make a lot of sense to me."
So, it makes sense to lock a murderer with a weapon in a train car with many more potential victims?
I guess in that situation, if a few more people are killed, AND you eventually make the arrest - the city not only gets the PR of apprehending a criminal in the act of a major crime, but the statistics for successful arrests goes up.
I see the mayor's point...
That's quite a stretch, are you suggesting the police in response to the motorman's call for help, order him to lock the murderer in so they and the city would look good making the arrest?
I agree with the mayor, it doesnt make sense to pull up to the station and open the doors so everyone can go running off. I recall a few years ago there was that deranged man that stabbed a tourist in the heart on a 1 train, got off at the next stop when they opened the doors and the police weren't able to catch him. Then he turned up a few hours later in Times Square and went on a stabbing spree, luckily the police got him quickly so only 2 other people became victims.
What I'm suggesting through satire is - well, yes, is exactly that.
And to all you other a-holes who would have "not pulled the brake" - you would have made the decision to not pull the brake NOT due to your clarity of how to handle the situation - but because you would have been paralyzed by fear.
You would have stood there pissing your pants, not wanting to get involved and waiting for someone else to do something.
Yes, you would have.
"So, it makes sense to lock a murderer with a weapon in a train car with many more potential victims?
Actually, there are fewer potential victims in the car than if he is allowed out onto a crowded platform. And as kazubes reply suggests, there is a whole city full of potential victims if the guy gets away.
Certainly it'd be frightening to be locked in the car with him -- especially it happened to be just a handful of people of the car, or you the killer and the victim -- but it's hard to justify letting a killer who essentially has been caught red handed (sorry) slip away.
While I hope something like this never happens again, if it does, I hope jaycjay is locked on the car with the killer - just so he can come back and tell us how brave he felt knowing while he may have died, statistics were saving the rest of the city.
I didn't comment at all what one should or shouldn't do if in a subway car when something like this happens. Certainly I made no statement of bravado and didn't speculate at all about what I'd do.
Read it again, I'll wait.
I'm commenting only on the policy that they doors stay closed until police arrive.
I have to agree with Huffy6241 on this one.
No way in HELL do I want to be locked on a train with some madman with a knife. What if he had a gun and a clip with 12, 16 rounds in there?? Now you're going to pull the chord and lock me in the car with this dude?? Uhh, no thanks, yo.
1) Each car should be unlocked and you should be allowed to get between cars, no matter the situation.
2) Do away with the emergency brake. Seriously, it's an extremely misleading concept. If anything, when you pull it the train should go to the next stop and immediately open the doors.
Once again, I guess these rules don't apply to Herr Bloomberg so it doesn't matter that these peeps were locked in the car with a murderer.
Why did this guy pull the brake? Never pull the brake.
when do we pull the brake again?
in the case of buster keaton-esque situations?
or just never?
Pull the brake once you have reached the next station to keep it from leaving. This way police and medical teams can actually reach the train quickly.
also, if someone is stuck in a door while the train is leaving, that's a good reason to e-brake.
gotcha, so IN a station type stuff.thanks.
also i think NOT when the cars have come uncoupled and a guy is spread eagle between them holding the train together with his body.
If he didn't pull the break, the train would have pulled into the next station and the stabber would have run out. There would be no police waiting because the motorman refused to open the door. What else could he do? That guy 100% did the right thing.
shouldn't have pulled that brake. maybe the train would have gotten to the next station and the guy's life might have been saved. still could have caught the murderer but the time it took to reset the train after the pulling of the emergency brake might have cost this guy's life. just saying.............
This poor guy got it in the carotid artery. It's doubtful he would've survived even if they'd made it to the next station without interruption.
Its pretty telling that some young guy would be hesitant to come forward because he was more afraid of being popped by the cops or the MTA for pulling the brake.
I mean really now, how overbearing is the law when someone feels the need to make a quality judgment like that.
What the fuck. What a sad situation all around.
In the make-believe land that is the Gothamist commenter section, a land full of gumdrops and faux machismo, everyone has a level head and thinks things through after an innocent man suddenly gets stabbed by a lunatic with a steak knife and starts hissing blood out of his carotid artery.
Give me a fucking break.
+1
Thank you.
I've already re-played this incident in my mind 10x:
First, I disarmed the murderer after he stabbed the innocent victim in the neck. I broke the murderers arms and pinned him against the pole with my belt. I then slit my own wrists, filling up the victim with my OWN blood, thereby saving his life.
There is also this hot chick on the train, who I kissed, made love to, who promptly dumped me cause I didn't make enough money and then I bought a dozen boxes of thin mints from the girl scout who was also in the train.
I SAVED THE DAY!! Now, let me get back to my beer.
yea it was the pain medication that made him do it. of course. so the train restarted and pulled into the station and then sat there with the doors locked ??
I don't blame the guy for pulling the brake. Maybe he should have, maybe he shouldn't but think about it. You are panicking in an emergency and the sign says "emergency break." It was a logical reaction.
BTW-exactly under what circumstances are you to pull the brake?
"exactly under what circumstances are you to pull the brake?"
A person trapped in a door or between cars. Which means in the rare event that it is the right thing to do, it'll almost always be in a station not in a tunnel.
"Emergency brake" doesn't mean that you should pull it in any emergency. Just the ones where it might actually be helpful to stop the train, which would not include when a man is bleeding to death and you're locked in a subway car with a murdering psychopath.
2. Lying to police is against the law. (Just ask Martha Stewart.) You have the right to STFU, but you can't tell them lies. I wish the D.A. would throw the book at this moron.
jeez, ur not mellow at all...
Does no one read the signs in the train about what to do in an emergency? For each scenario they say in red letters at the bottom 'do not pull the emergency brake' or something to that effect. Granted, I had always wondered if that was reverse psychology since a statement not to do something apparently will result in that being done in emergency scenarios.
Yeah because when someone is STABBED IN THE NECK 10 feet away from me the first thing I'm going to do is read the instructions on the wall.
It is easy to call him an idiot on the internet, but humor me and go stand a few feet away from an armed murderer covered in blood. I'm willing to bet you'd wish you could stop peeing your pants long enough to do anything to alert the authorities.
...this was intended as a reply to Natdapp
I totally agree. From the comfort of my own home, safe from harm, it's easy to say you shouldn't pull the emergency break. Had I been in that subway car, I might as well have pulled it because there's a KILLER there and you PANIC and want to do SOMETHING. All of the commenters who say the person who pulled the emergency break is an idiot are extremely ignorant to an extraordinary situation where you cannot think straight!!
If it's not supposed to be used, then why is it there?
The more I think about it-makes sense he pulled the brake. You ever push a button on an elevator to make it go faster even though you know it won't help?
I bet in an emergency situation, stuck in a tin can with no way to communicate the mind says "oh, if I pull the lever with the sign that says "emergency brake", the emergency will stop.
I will apply for a government grant to investigate the matter.
"You ever push a button on an elevator to make it go faster even though you know it won't help?"
Uh, no. I don't. Ever. It's stupid to do something like that. Although I do admit to somewhat compulsively looking down the tracks every minute or so to see if the next train is coming yet.
he was already on the train when someone got killed right in front of him. then he was justifiably afraid of the cops beacuse they lack intelligence and carry guns. he shouldn't have pulled the brake but whatever ... the train operator shouldn;t have listened to the cops and locked the doors.
Gothamist - your news coverage has definitely taken a turn just to up your comment numbers. There are no two ways about it. Enough with the same follow up stories already!
I'll bet he wouldn't have pulled that brake if he knew that office workers were going to call him stupid in the comments section of a blog
I would have shit in my pants if I was in that car... He did the right thing pulling that chord.
Bdim/C#
i would've pulled the brake. it's a goddamn emergency and the conductor/motorman may not've heard what was going on, so pulling a brake alerts everyone else.
besides,would you want this killer to come out onto the platform and kill an unsuspecting person waiting at the door?
but once the train stopped, they should've tried to evacuate the trapped people into another car. why keep them locked inside?? they must've been knocking on the doors screaming to get out...
"but once the train stopped, they should've tried to evacuate the trapped people into another car."
"They" should have? Before the police arrived, who would that "they" be who could have evacuated the innocent people to another car while keeping the killer where he was?
The dying victim should have pulled the brake. It's much harder to prosecute a corpse.
Some people freak out in an emergency, and some people keep their cool and make rational decisions.
I.......want to pull the e-brake right now!
I'm glad someone did SOMETHING.
and mr. mayor your police force has radios and what they usually do is stop and frisk anyone and everyone.
for this situation, you might as well up your stop and frisk numbers.
I would have pulled the brake if my mind was not wrapped up in seeing a guy bleed to death.
the guy might not have stab anyone out of the subway car, he's looking to flee, not stab more people. but that's just my opinion just like the mayor has one.
don't forget he takes the subway like the rest of us,
and a helicopter.
"I would have pulled the brake if my mind was not wrapped up in seeing a guy bleed to death.
the guy might not have stab anyone out of the subway car, he's looking to flee, not stab more people"
Then the thing to do is not pull the brake, so the train is in the station with the doors open within a minute or two... right?
I'm sure that would be the correct protocol for a transit employee but as a layperson who knows what I would have done. but yeah, getting stuck in a dark tunnel would be much worse than getting stuck at a station platform.
I'm thinking the Taking of Pelham 1, 2,3 type situation.
"You should have let me sit down" Yeah that's a good reason to murder someone. A good lawyer can really run with that one.
'You're not supposed to [pull the brake], you should have just let the train go.
Sounds like a plan. (Speaking @ conductor) Perhaps if you got off your lazy ass and opened the door to see what all the commotion was about then no one would have pulled the emergency cord fearing for their lives. I swear, the MTA is reactive... never proactive.
this was the first car and perhaps he was busy ... operating the train ? Besides, they're probably told not to open the door for anybody in fear of terrorists hijacking the train.
im not sure the situations are entirely comparable but isnt the reason we dont have police chases throughout the city the fear of endangering innocent lives at the expense of catching a suspect? i mean by bloomberg's logic the value of the individuals lives outside of that train were more valuable than the lives of those within that car. if im locked on that fucking train with that guy because this is "the correct" policy im pissed off.
Totally right. It's better to let a murderer get away than to do what they did. If someone else had been stabbed on that locked subway car the city/MTA would be paying out millions in a wrongful death suit for knowingly locking multiple people in a subway car with an armed murderer!
Anyone here, if they were stabbed while locked inside that car, would sue in a split-second. And they'd deserve to win.
Why hasn't anyone pointed out that the guy who pulled the brake was a freakin' security guard? And that after the operator opened his door, he forced his way into the booth with the guy, leaving everyone else on the outside to piss their pants until the train re-started?
Sorry, but the dude's a PUSSSAAAAAYYYYY!!! Some security guard.
What makes you think that a regular security guard should also be responsible for the NYC subway?
Isn't that the job of the NYC transit cops?
I didn't say he was... but as someone whose job is to provide *some* sort of security, one would hope he'd be less hardwired to panic so quickly (and subsequently puss out by hiding in the train operator's booth).
If I ever encounter a non-work-related administrative emergency, I am not helping.
it took 52 comments to point out that obvious point, sorry i was busy all morning.
the dude pussed out after pulling the cord and hid in the conductors cab!!!
No, not the conductor's cab, the motorman's. The conductor is always in the middle car and the driver--aka the motorman--is always in the first car. No more pot for you.
The MTA only points out problems, and doesn't give solutions.
Other than trying to alert the motorman (which the guy obviously did), the only other option is the pull the brake.
Why isn't there an intercom or some sort of emergency alert system for the passengers on the D train?
just saying, i dont reply on wikipedia for my subway knowledge.
the old trains had conductors booths, over the years they became reconfigured into blocked off sections on both ends so that the any conductor or motorman didnt have to ride in a "coffin" enclosure.
the issue is not the railfan mta job title, the point i was trying to make is that the guy pulled the cord and retreated into the safety of the cabin section not open to the public, its not important that a token booth clerk or the CEO of the MTA was in it.
pull the cord always a bad idea, its not an option,
anyone with half a brain would know that stopping the train in the tunnel means stopping in the train trapped with a madman and possibly causing a delay in rescue.
nobody in that situation would really consider the option of being trapped as a way of catching the bad guy, if that guy pulled this stunt on an elevator, would a witness push the emergency stop and be trapped in an elevator, no of course not he would hope that door opens as soon as possible.
Douchebag Bloomberg. On this one, I'm really viscerally reacting to this time. Murderers roam free everyday. Police call off chases all the time for fear of endangering innocents. Best example of letting murderers go is the killer who was seen outside the post office. He got caught, didn't he? People identified him, didn't they? But in this case, it somehow makes sense to trap an already enraged knife-wielding psycho in a train full of innocents.