Asian Man Pushed Onto Long Island City Subway Tracks, Says NYPD

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — While waiting for the train in a Long Island City subway station on Monday morning, an Asian man was pushed onto the subway tracks by a stranger, according to police — an unprovoked attack that marks another instance of reported anti-Asian hate in the city.

The 35-year-old man was waiting for the F train on a subway platform at the 21st Street Queensbridge station around 7:45 a.m., when a person approached him, said something that didn’t make sense, and pushed him into the train tracks, according to the NYPD.

People in the station helped the man off the tracks, and he was taken to Mt. Sinai-Queens to receive medical help for a cut on his forehead, said police.

The attack comes amid an increase in anti-Asian violence during the pandemic — From March 2020 to March 2021 there have been over 6,600 reports of anti-AAPI acts of violence, over two-thirds of which were reported by women, according to a national report authored by the non-profit Stop AAPI Hate.

And as U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) of Queens said last week — as she celebrated her COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act getting signed into law — "those are just the reported numbers."

It’s been well documented that anti-Asian hate crimes are vastly underreported, including in New York City, and one of the aims of the new hate crime law is to expand the channels for reporting and preventing these cases.

The attack also coincides with ongoing debates about subway safety, following several high-profile subway assaults.

During the past month, some MTA officials and Governor Andrew Cuomo have called on the mayor and the NYPD to put more cops on the subway, citing riders' concerns about safety.

Although Mayor de Blasio and other agency officials have pushed back against the demands to add more cops, noting that major crimes are actually down 59 percent in the subways, the mayor promised last week to add 250 more NYPD officers to the subway.

As for the attack in Long Island City, the person who pushed the Asian man onto the tracks ran from the station and is now being sought by police — who included a photo taken from the station, and described him as about 6-feet tall.

Governor Cuomo also responded to the incident, calling on the New York State Police Hate Crimes Task Force to “offer their assistance” to the NYPD in the investigation.

In a news statement on Monday the Governor said he was “disgusted” to learn about the attack, adding “hate and violence have no place in New York - period.”

City Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents District 26 which includes Long Island City, also issued a statement about the attack.

Death by racism is real,” he wrote, adding that while he thinks it is important to hold the perpetrator of this attack accountable “it’s up to us to work with impacted communities [AAPI communities] to keep them safe and inoculate the broader society against the hateful lies that put them in harm’s way.”

“Queens is home to the largest Asian population in the city, and we are a better borough because of it,” he concluded.”

The NYPD asked that anyone with information about the incident in Long Island City call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) or submit a tip online or on Twitter.