{"id":15846,"date":"2012-12-29T06:21:43","date_gmt":"2012-12-29T11:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=15846"},"modified":"2012-12-29T06:21:43","modified_gmt":"2012-12-29T11:21:43","slug":"woman-who-pushed-man-onto-subway-tracks-for-being-muslim-or-hindu-is-charged-with-hate-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2012\/12\/woman-who-pushed-man-onto-subway-tracks-for-being-muslim-or-hindu-is-charged-with-hate-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman Who Pushed Man Onto Subway Tracks for Being “Muslim or Hindu” Is Charged With Hate Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Erika<\/a>
Erika Menendez, 31, charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime, was led out of the 112th Precinct in Queens on Saturday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By MARC SANTORA<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A 31-year-old woman was arrested on Saturday and charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime in connection with the death of a man who was pushed onto the tracks of an elevated subway station in Queens and crushed by an oncoming train.<\/span><\/p>\n

The woman, Erika Menendez, selected her victim because she believed him to be a Muslim or a Hindu, Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney, said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter\u2019s nightmare: Being suddenly and senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train,\u201d Mr. Brown said in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

In<\/span>\u00a0una declaraci\u00f3n<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Mr. Brown quoted Ms. Menendez, \u201cin sum and substance,\u201d as having told the police: \u201cI pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I\u2019ve been beating them up.\u201d Ms. Menendez conflated the Muslim and Hindu faiths in her comments to the police and in her target for attack, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The victim, Sunando Sen, was born in India and, according to a roommate, was raised Hindu.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Sen \u201cwas allegedly shoved from behind and had no chance to defend himself,\u201d Mr. Brown said. \u201cBeyond that, the hateful remarks allegedly made by the defendant and which precipitated the defendant\u2019s actions should never be tolerated by a civilized society.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Brown said he had no information on the defendant\u2019s criminal or mental history.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be up to the court to determine if she is fit to stand trial,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Menendez is expected to be arraigned by Sunday morning. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. By charging her with murder as a hate crime, the possible minimum sentence she faced would be extended to 20 years from 15 years, according to prosecutors.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday night, Ms. Menendez, wearing a dark blue hooded sweatshirt, was escorted from the 112th Precinct to a waiting car by three detectives. Greeted by camera flashes and dozens of reporters, she let out a loud, unintelligible moan. She did not respond to reporters\u2019 questions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The attack occurred around 8 p.m. on Thursday at the 40th Street-Lowery Street station in Sunnyside.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Sen, 46, was looking out over the tracks when a woman approached him from behind and shoved him onto the tracks, according to the police. Mr. Sen never saw her, the police said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The woman fled the station, running down two flights of stairs and down the street.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the next morning, a brief and grainy<\/span>\u00a0black-and-white video<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0of the woman who the police said was behind the attack was being broadcast on news programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Patrol officers picked up Ms. Menendez early Saturday after someone who had seen the video on television spotted her on a Brooklyn street and called 911, said Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the Police Department. She was taken to Queens and later placed in lineups, according to detectives. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said on Friday that, according to witnesses\u2019 accounts, there had been no contact on the subway platform between the attacker and the victim before the shove.<\/span><\/p>\n

The case was<\/span>\u00a0the second this month<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0involving someone being pushed to death in a train station. In the first case, Ki-Suck Han, 58, of Elmhurst, Queens, died under the Q train at the 49th Street and Seventh Avenue station on Dec. 3. Naeem Davis, 30, was<\/span>\u00a0charged with second-degree murder<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0in that case.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Sen, after years of saving money, had opened a small copying business on the Upper West Side this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ar Suman, a Muslim, and one of three roommates who shared a small first-floor apartment with Mr. Sen in Elmhurst, said he and Mr. Sen often discussed religion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though they were of different faiths, Mr. Suman said, he admired the respect that Mr. Sen showed for those who saw the world differently than he did. Mr. Suman said he once asked Mr. Sen why he was not more active in his faith and it resulted in a long philosophical discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was so gentle,\u201d Mr. Suman said. \u201cHe said in this world a lot of people are dying, killing over religious things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Reporting was contributed by William K. Rashbaum, Wendy Ruderman, Jeffrey E. Singer and Julie Turkewitz. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By MARC SANTORA A 31-year-old woman was arrested on Saturday and charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime in connection with the death of..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,97],"tags":[357,345],"class_list":["post-15846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discrimination","category-us-news","tag-racism","tag-reactionary-watch"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/30push1-popup.jpg?fit=414%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}