A man accused of pushing an 85-year-old subway rider onto the tracks at a Manhattan station was being held on $50,000 bail after admitting he shoved the old man, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Brittan Jones, 30, confessed to the crime after he was read his rights following his arrest for the Wednesday morning shove at the 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center station in Midtown.
Jones was arrested on the Upper West Side Wednesday night after cops circulated a photo of him that was screen grabbed from surveillance footage. He was charged with assault and reckless endangerment.
His elderly victim, who was pulled from the tracks by responding EMS workers, suffered a leg injury. No trains were entering the station at the time.
Police say Jones got into an argument with the older man who was sleeping on a bench on the downtown B and D train platform at around 5:40 a.m.
The argument boiled over and the attacker pushed the victim to the tracks and ran off, police said.
Cops released a surveillance photo of the suspect later in the day and asked for the public’s help identifying and locating him.
Police said Jones has an address in York, Pa., though it wasn’t clear if he was visiting New York or had recently moved to the city.
“This conduct is egregious and the defendant demonstrates a flight risk as his address is listed as Pennsylvania,” Assistant Manhattan DA Harriet Jiranek said in court. “This is a strong case that is captured on video with an independent eyewitness who observes the entire incident.”
The attack comes amid a rise in subway crime. According to the NYPD, there were 491 felony assaults in the subway system between Jan. 1 and Nov. 5, a notable increase from the 470 felony assaults reported in all of 2022.