Latest Subway Attack Was an 'Attack Against Muslims'

Commuters can rest a little easier as New York police said Saturday they believe they have the woman recently who pushed a man onto the subway tracks for no apparent reason.

Update 5:07 p.m.: ​This dark news item took a decidedly darker turn Saturday evening. The New York Times' Marc Santora updated his story with new details about the woman and her motivations for attacking the man. The girl's name is Erica Menendez, of the Bronx, and the comments she made to police implicating herself revealed the whole thing to be a hate crime:

A law enforcement official said that Ms. Menendez had “told the cops it was an act against Muslims,” and cited the Sept. 11 attacks. The victim, Sunando Sen, was born in India and, according to a roommate, was raised Hindu.

Original Post: Commuters can rest a little easier as New York police said Saturday they believe they have the woman recently who pushed a man onto the subway tracks for no apparent reason.

The New York Post first reported that law enforcement had caught up with the lady suspected of pushing a man into the way of a coming subway train Thursday evening. She hasn't been charged and her identity hasn't been released yet, but apparently the suspect has made statements implicating herself to police.

The story of what happened this time, the second subway pushing incident this month, is straight out of your nightmares. Sunando Sen, a shopkeeper, was peering out over the tracks as the No. 7 train pulled into the station in Sunnyside, Queens. A woman who he previously had no contact with came up from behind him and shoved him into the way of the oncoming train. He never saw her or had any time to react. There was no moment where someone, hopefully, could have saved him. That's how this subway pushing differs from the one earlier this month. In that scenario, a man was pushed onto the subway tracks with (maybe) enough time to be saved. But a photographer was able to snap a picture of the man on the tracks and we got a hotly debated New York Post cover.