Man Arrested After Shoving Woman Towards Oncoming R Train

Photo via NYC Subway

A fashion merchandise creative director is relieved to be alive after a man shoved her into an oncoming subway train at the 28th Street R station on Wednesday. Ute Linhart hit the train and then the impact threw her back onto the uptown platform; she told the Post, "As the impact happened, I'm thinking, 'I'm going to be dead.' Then I realized that I was in so much pain, I couldn't possibly be dead."

The incident occurred around 8:00 p.m. when Linhart was waiting for an uptown train. According to the Post, Jose Rojas, a cook at Cipriani, was "on the platform pointing in a menacing gun-like gesture at several other straphangers when he made a beeline for the victim." She says, "He stood next to me for a few seconds and stared at my face. He looked insane." Then he allegedly pushed her into the train's path. When she was thrown back onto the platform—suffering suffering ribs, a broken left arm, and right cheek—another person waiting for a train grabbed her, softening her blow.
Others stopped Rojas from leaving the station.

When the cops asked Rojas his name, he allegedly answered, "My name is Osama bin Laden, f--k you!" and was taken to Bellevue because he was so drunk. He was charged with attempted murder and assault, though his lawyer argued that the attempted murder charge was too much, "At no point is my client actually identified as the individual who pushed this woman into the train."

Linhart, who is still at Bellevue, told the Post, "I'm never going to go down [to the subway] there again. I'd rather pay for a cab or walk or take the bus. I wasn't even standing near the edge. I was a few feet away."

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By Jen Chung in News on August 13, 2010 11:13 AM

Comments [rss]

John L

Forget taxing the sugar in beverages, they need to tax the alcohol. There's too many drunks on the streets, in the subways, driving cars, etc., maybe a higher tax would deter some of them from drinking so much and raise tax revenue.

meknow

WTG Rojas! Fuel those stereotypes that your brethren fight so hard to bust through. One bad apple...

Brooklynchick70

In the August 2010 issue of Psychology today, there is a section about psychopaths and how many can never be fixed and that society must deal with them by keeping them locked up. I know it sounds good to lock them up (at taxpayers expense), but seriously, kill this guy and others like him. It's for the greater good. If not, he'll be out soon (because it's too expensive to keep him confined) and he'll do it again this time with success.

what_a_dick

what a dick!

Guav

Sorry about the duplicate comments, apparently I have forgotten how to operate the interweb tubes.

Guav

I work with Ute (she is my immediate supervisor). Several years ago, she was crossing the street and a car came speeding around the corner and hit her. She flew up over the car and landed in the road. No broken bones, no internal injuries.

She seems to have bad luck, but is apparently indestructible.

Mr. Know-It-All

I know there's nothing funny about that, but I just nearly busted a gut laughing with I read your comment. I wish her a speedy recovery.

Guav

I work with Ute (she is my immediate supervisor). Several years ago, she was crossing the street and a car came speeding around the corner and hit her. She flew up over the car and landed in the road. No broken bones, no internal injuries.

She seems to have bad luck, but is apparently indestructible.

Think2wice

I can't stand these subway crazies. If he's found to be crazy instead of guilty then lobotomize his fucked-up brain. BTW this is another argument for platform doors.

The Crunge

Beaner.. You're an ignorant mouth breather sloppyj.

SlappyJ

How could anyone defend this guy. That beaner needs to be killed.

psquire

I agree with your first sentence. The second one, no thank you.

Mr. Know-It-All

I used to feel paranoid because I always step back and look over both my shoulders whenever the train enters the station. Now, not so much.

schadenfreudian mensch

Lord, I was on that train when it happened. As the train approached the station there was a sound of a bump and the train sort of lurched and slowed till it was completely in the station. I knew something bad had happened when the doors wouldn't open and the engineer started getting all agitated when he came out of the cab to get onto the platform to see how bad the woman injured. He left one door open and most people started to streaming out.

ItchyGoiter

I was there too. She was pretty banged up but I'm glad she is ultimately OK. I left the station as there was no need to gawk, and as I walked out there were people corralled around Rojas and one guy was yelling at him. Rojas looked very drunk and pissed off, and was very dismissive of the guy yelling at him.

What the fuck is wrong with people??

Also, the MTA is full of shit. I didn't get the alert until after I got home over 45 minutes ago, and the "service has resumed" email came in about 5 minutes later. The reason given for the disruption? "Sick passenger."

diablofreak

good, put him on trial as Osama. they'll have a verdict in 5 minutes and put him to death.

Spirit of 76

"I'm never going to go down [to the subway] there again. I'd rather pay for a cab or walk or take the bus."

You can't live in fear, woman, otherwise the terrorists have won... Oh, wait, that wasn't really Osama.

But seriously, what makes her think a cab or bus is safer? Haven't we all seen the stories of people being killed in livery cabs, or getting out of them, or by them? And the various bus stop accidents, including the recent one that involved a livery cab. You might as well walk, except that pedestrians get killed, too. Life entails risk. She needs to come to grips with that.

pumpkin13

Maybe she'll come to grips with it after she gets over the initial shock of almost being murdered by a maniac. Geez. Give her a break.

Spirit of 76

You mean like all those people who decided to move out of NYC after maniacs murdered 3000 people on 9/11? Psychologists will tell you that the best and fastest way to get over a trauma is to get right back on the horse after you fall off. Indulging irrational fears doesn't help her in the least. The subway carried 1.5 billion riders in 2009. How many of those were pushed onto the tracks? She's more likely to be hit by lightning or to win the lottery than to be pushed again. According to Guav below, she's already been hit by a car. It hasn't stopped her from crossing streets.