NEW YORK: A woman accused of pushing an Indian-born man to his death in front of a New York City subway train told police she did it because she blamed Muslims for the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and because “I thought it would be cool,” prosecutors said at a court hearing.
Erika Menendez, 31, laughed so hard during her arraignment in criminal court Saturday night that Judge Gia Morris told her lawyer, “You’re going to have to have your client stop laughing.”
Menendez was charged with murder as a hate crime after she told police she spontaneously pushed Sunando Sen.
Defense attorney Dietrich Epperson said Menendez’s behavior in court was no different from how she had been acting when he spoke to her privately, and he said his client didn’t really think the proceedings were funny.
Menendez was held without bail and ordered to have a mental health exam. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 14.
Prosecutors said Menendez pushed the 46-year-old Sen to his death Thursday night because she blamed “Muslims, Hindus and Egyptians” for the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
“I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims — ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I’ve been beating them up,” Menendez told police, according to the Queens district attorney’s office.
Friends and co-workers said Sen, a native of Calcutta, was Hindu. He had lived in New York for decades and was a graphic designer and copy shop owner. Sen was standing on an elevated train platform when he was shoved from behind as the train entered the station.
Witnesses told police a woman had been mumbling to herself and was sitting on a bench behind Sen until the train pulled in, then shoved him and fled.
Police released a sketch and surveillance footage of a woman running from the subway station. Menendez was arrested after a passer-by thought she looked like the wanted suspect. Witnesses identified her in a lineup and she was questioned by police, when she implicated herself, according to police and prosecutors.
According to the district attorney’s office, Menendez said, “There is no reason. I just pushed him in front of the train because I thought it would be cool.”
Sen was the second man to die after being pushed in front of a New York City subway train this month. Ki-Suck Han was killed in a subway station on Dec. 3. A homeless man was arrested and charged with murder in that case and is awaiting trial. He claimed he acted in self-defense.
Such subway deaths are rare, but transit officials said last week they would consider installing barriers with sliding doors on some subway platforms. Other cities including Paris and London have installed such barriers.
Angel Luis Santiago, who used to work at the building where Menendez’s mother and stepfather live, said he was shocked by her arrest.
“It surprised me what she did,” he said. “She never acted that way.”
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Psychiatric test for suspect in NYC subway death
Psychiatric test for suspect in NYC subway death
Nigerian police deny church attacks as residents insist 168 people are held by armed groups
Kaduna State Police Commissioner Muhammad Rabiu described news reports of the attacks as rumors
It is common for police and locals to have contradicting accounts of attacks in Nigeria’s hard-hit villages
KADUNA, Nigeria: Nigerian police denied reports of simultaneous church attacks in northwestern Kaduna state over the weekend, even as residents shared accounts of kidnappings at the churches in interviews Tuesday.
A state lawmaker, Usman Danlami Stingo, told The Associated Press on Monday that 177 people were abducted by an armed group Sunday. Eleven escaped and 168 are still missing, according to the lawmaker and residents interviewed by AP.
Kaduna State Police Commissioner Muhammad Rabiu described news reports of the attacks as rumors, saying the police visited one of the three churches in the district of Kajuru and “there was no evidence of the attack.”
It is common for police and locals to have contradicting accounts of attacks in Nigeria’s hard-hit villages.
“I am one of the people who escaped from the bandits. We all saw it happen, and anyone who says it didn’t happen is lying,” said Ishaku Dan’azumi, the village head of Kurmin Wali.
Nigeria is struggling with several armed groups that launch attacks across the country, including Boko Haram and Daesh-WAP, which are religiously motivated, and other amorphous groups commonly called “bandits.”
Rights group Amnesty International condemned the “desperate denial” of the attack by the police and government.
“The latest mass abduction clearly shows President Bola Tinubu and his government have no effective plan for ending years of atrocities by armed groups and gunmen that killed thousands of people,” the group said in a statement.
A Kaduna-based Christian group, the Christian Solidarity Worldwide Nigeria, said in a press release that security operatives did not allow its members to visit the sites of the attacks.
“The military officer who stopped the CSWN car said there was a standing order not to allow us in,” Reuben Buhari, the group’s spokesperson, said.
The Chikun/Kajuru Active Citizens Congress, a local advocacy group, published a list of the hostages. The list could not be independently verified by the AP. Police did not respond to a request for questions on the list.
The Christian Association of Nigeria also verified the attacks and has a list of the hostages, according to a senior Christian leader in the state who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of his safety.
“This happened, and our job is to help them. These people came, attacked and picked people from churches,” he said. “But I think they prefer to play the politics of denying, and I don’t think that’s what we want.”
Attacks against religious worship centers are common in Nigeria’s conflict-battered north. They are a part of the country’s complex security crisis that also affects schools, such as in November when hundreds of schoolchildren and their teachers were abducted in another part of Kaduna.
In the past few months, the West African nation has been in the crosshairs of the US government, which has accused the Nigerian government of not protecting Christians in the country, leading to a diplomatic rift. The USlaunched an attack against an alleged Daesh group members on Nigerian territory on Dec. 25, an operation the Nigerian government said it was aware of.
It is common for police and locals to have contradicting accounts of attacks in Nigeria’s hard-hit villages
KADUNA, Nigeria: Nigerian police denied reports of simultaneous church attacks in northwestern Kaduna state over the weekend, even as residents shared accounts of kidnappings at the churches in interviews Tuesday.
A state lawmaker, Usman Danlami Stingo, told The Associated Press on Monday that 177 people were abducted by an armed group Sunday. Eleven escaped and 168 are still missing, according to the lawmaker and residents interviewed by AP.
Kaduna State Police Commissioner Muhammad Rabiu described news reports of the attacks as rumors, saying the police visited one of the three churches in the district of Kajuru and “there was no evidence of the attack.”
It is common for police and locals to have contradicting accounts of attacks in Nigeria’s hard-hit villages.
“I am one of the people who escaped from the bandits. We all saw it happen, and anyone who says it didn’t happen is lying,” said Ishaku Dan’azumi, the village head of Kurmin Wali.
Nigeria is struggling with several armed groups that launch attacks across the country, including Boko Haram and Daesh-WAP, which are religiously motivated, and other amorphous groups commonly called “bandits.”
Rights group Amnesty International condemned the “desperate denial” of the attack by the police and government.
“The latest mass abduction clearly shows President Bola Tinubu and his government have no effective plan for ending years of atrocities by armed groups and gunmen that killed thousands of people,” the group said in a statement.
A Kaduna-based Christian group, the Christian Solidarity Worldwide Nigeria, said in a press release that security operatives did not allow its members to visit the sites of the attacks.
“The military officer who stopped the CSWN car said there was a standing order not to allow us in,” Reuben Buhari, the group’s spokesperson, said.
The Chikun/Kajuru Active Citizens Congress, a local advocacy group, published a list of the hostages. The list could not be independently verified by the AP. Police did not respond to a request for questions on the list.
The Christian Association of Nigeria also verified the attacks and has a list of the hostages, according to a senior Christian leader in the state who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of his safety.
“This happened, and our job is to help them. These people came, attacked and picked people from churches,” he said. “But I think they prefer to play the politics of denying, and I don’t think that’s what we want.”
Attacks against religious worship centers are common in Nigeria’s conflict-battered north. They are a part of the country’s complex security crisis that also affects schools, such as in November when hundreds of schoolchildren and their teachers were abducted in another part of Kaduna.
In the past few months, the West African nation has been in the crosshairs of the US government, which has accused the Nigerian government of not protecting Christians in the country, leading to a diplomatic rift. The USlaunched an attack against an alleged Daesh group members on Nigerian territory on Dec. 25, an operation the Nigerian government said it was aware of.
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