A Large Apple straphanger hero pulled an 83-year-old Air Drive vet to security with solely seconds to spare after each have been shoved onto Higher East Aspect subway tracks, allegedly by an unlawful immigrant.
Jhon Pena, 30, ignored his personal accidents and helped pull grandfather Richard Williams again onto the platform simply moments earlier than a prepare rolled into the station, an act of heroism that left the older man’s daughters eternally grateful — though it might not be sufficient to save lots of her dad’s life.
“He helped my dad get out of there,” Debbie Williams stated of Pena. “The primary man that bought pushed is the man who assisted my father off the tracks with all people else. What are you able to say about New Yorkers?”
Tragically, she advised The Submit her dad, who simply celebrated his fifty fifth wedding ceremony anniversary, could not make it — Queens prosecutors stated Wednesday that Williams is “at present mind lifeless.”
“My father will not be doing nicely in any respect,” she stated. “There isn’t any change — It doesn’t look promising.”
Each males have been on the Lexington Avenue-63rd Road station in Manhattan shortly earlier than midday Sunday when prosecutors stated unlawful Honduran immigrant Bairon Hernandez, 34, walked up and pushed them onto the tracks in a stunning and unprovoked assault.
Chilling cellphone footage of the assault apparently shot by Pena from the prepare tracks exhibits the aftermath of the assault, with the suspect casually strolling alongside the platform after pushing each males onto the subway mattress.
A bystander is seen within the video grabbing the thug and briefly struggling with him earlier than he turns to examine on the 2 injured straphangers, because the attacker — alleged to be Hernandez — is seen strolling away.
The stranger then is seen extending his hand to the 2 victims.
“It’s horrible, it’s hit him very onerous,” Pena’s mom, Claudia Pena, stated of her son. “He tells me it was very distressing getting [Williams] out of there and never doing something extra for him.”
Pena suffered shoulder and knee accidents and was taken to Jamaica Hospital.
Williams, a retired Air Drive jet mechanic who later based a bulletproof materials enterprise suffered the extra critical accidents and remained on the ICU at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell.
One other of the vet’s three daughters, Diane Williams, who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, advised The Submit that the incident has been hardest on her ailing aged mom.
“I don’t know how she goes to outlive this,” she stated. “Proper now, she is simply misplaced. She is totally misplaced. She retains speaking to my dad and telling him, ‘C’mon, get up. Get up, sweetheart.’
“She will be able to’t digest this.”
She stated her father “cherished Manhattan,” and spoke to him simply earlier than he left his residence on Roosevelt Island to go into the Large Apple, telling her, ‘Honey, I’m going to go now. I’m going into town.”
The sisters stated Richard Williams had overwhelmed prostate cancers simply six months in the past after being recognized about 5 years earlier, and had discovered a brand new lease on life.
“He was out buying,” Debbie Williams stated. “He was out, occurring the subway. He’s totally impartial. He battled most cancers, he bought via that…. He was dwelling his greatest life after which this needed to occur.
“I can’t think about why anyone would take into account pushing an individual,” she stated. “It’s past me.”
She praised Pena and the opposite bystanders who got here to her dad’s assist.
“They’re phenomenal,” she added. “Till that son of a bitch that came to visit right here and simply determined to begin tearing up the subway. There are not any phrases to say how I really feel about him.”
Cops picked Hernandez up at a Brooklyn homeless shelter about 5 a.m. Tuesday and charged him with felony assault.
He was arraigned Wednesday night and ordered held on $100,000 money bail or a $300,000 bond.
Prosecutors stated Hernandez was within the nation illegally, with a previous conviction in New Jersey for getting into the US illegally, and a Texas conviction for re-entering illegally.
Protection legal professional Michael Papson stated Hernandez “vehemently denies” the allegations, however Decide Janice Chen stated the accused shover posed a “nice threat” of fleeing and set bail.
Williams’ daughters he needs to be held accountable.
“I feel he ought to endure like the remainder of us are struggling,” Diane Williams stated. “He simply randomly did it, simply push folks off the f–king subway tracks. I hope he lives together with his conscience.
“I need him to stay and stay with the implications he did.”
