Man pushed onto NYC subway tracks recovering while suspect is charged with attempted murder

[January 03, 2025]  By DAVE COLLINS

A man survived being shoved onto subway tracks ahead of an incoming train in New York City on New Year's Eve and is expected to fully recover, relatives said, while the person accused of pushing him was being held without bail Thursday on attempted murder and assault charges.

Joseph Lynskey, 45, was standing on the platform in the West 18th Street station in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon when another man pushed him onto the tracks as a 1 train approached. Police called it a random attack.

Lynskey's condition has been upgraded from critical to stable, police said. His injuries include a fractured skull, broken ribs and a ruptured spleen, authorities said.

“Miraculously, he survived the horrific attack, but he suffered many injuries and remains hospitalized in NY,” his sister, Jennifer Lynskey, wrote in a Facebook post. “Anyone who's ever met Joe knows he's one of the kindest, most thoughtful, and caring humans out there."

“Joe has a long road ahead of him, both physically and emotionally/mentally,” she continued.

She urged people to donate to a GoFundMe page to help pay for his medical expenses and other bills. The page had raised over $70,000 by Thursday afternoon.

Joseph Lynskey did not return phone and email messages Thursday.

He is head of content and music programming for Gray V, a New York City-based company that creates soundtracks and music playlists for customers, according to his LinkedIn page. He was born and raised in Miami and performs as a DJ known as Joe Usher, his website says.

A police report said surveillance video showed the suspect push Joseph Lynskey onto the tracks as a train approached, and he was hit by the train.

The recording, published by news outlets, shows a man standing on the platform, appearing to be looking at his phone, when another man in a black jacket with his hood up passes behind him, stops, then charges back and pushes him. The victim falls onto the tracks in front of the train as it arrives at the station.

Other videos posted on social media show firefighters going down to the tracks through a gap in between subway cars and pulling a person back up onto the platform.

Police officers patrol the F train platform at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Authorities did not say how Lynskey escaped with just broken bones. While a direct hit with a train is often fatal, some who fall from New York City’s platforms do manage to survive. Safety experts say if it’s not possible to get back on a platform or outrun a slowing train, lying down in the trough between the tracks may work in some stations, and there might be a space between the train and the platform at some stops.

Kamel Hawkins, 23, was taken into custody later that day. A judge in Manhattan approved a request by prosecutors on Wednesday to detain the Brooklyn resident without bail pending his next court appearance on Monday.

Hawkins already had pending assault and harassment charges in Brooklyn, where he is accused of throwing bleach on a woman and trying to break into her home after threatening her, according to prosecutors.

Hawkins' lawyer in the subway case, Darryl Hairston, did not immediately return a phone message Thursday. His lawyer in the Brooklyn case, Jeremy Gross, said he had no immediate comment.

Hawkins' father, Shamel Spencer, told The New York Times that he's stunned by the allegations. He said Hawkins had some troubles with the law, but he never thought his son would be charged with anything so violent. He also said he had been seeking help for his son because of concerns about his mental health and that he didn't seem like himself in recent weeks.

“He’s not a bad kid at all,” Spencer said.

The possibility of being pushed onto the tracks is a long-running nightmare for many New Yorkers. While it occurs rarely compared to the millions of rides each day, a push just this past March killed a person in East Harlem.

In New York, personal safety in the subway is generally comparable to safety in the city as a whole. But life-threatening crimes such as stabbings and shoves spread alarm about the trains, which carried more than 1 billion riders in 2024.

Police figures show major crimes on subways were down through November compared with the same period last year, but killings rose from five to nine.

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