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Suspect arrested for allegedly shoving NYC mom onto subway tracks in harrowing random attack
Samuel Junker, 41, was charged with felony assault in connection to the horrifying Tuesday night attack on Wan Xu, 34 – who told The Post she now fears ever taking the train again, cops said.
nypost.com
Suspect arrested for allegedly shoving NYC mom onto subway tracks in harrowing random attack
By
Amanda Woods
August 31, 2023 6:33pm
Updated
The unhinged man who allegedly shoved a married mom onto lower Manhattan subway tracks in a harrowing, unprovoked attack was arrested Thursday, police said.
Samuel Junker, 41, was charged with felony assault in connection to the random Tuesday night attack on Wan Xu, 34, who told The Post she is so distressed — she doesn’t know if she’ll ever be able to take the train again.
The mother-of-one, who was heading home after finishing work at a nearby foot massage salon around 11 p.m., recalled being about three feet from the edge of the 1/2/3 platform at the Chambers Street station when she suddenly felt a “great force.”
“This was really terrible because I didn’t have any warning at the time,” Xu said Wednesday from her Sunset Park, Brooklyn apartment — where she was laid up with a broken leg.
“He suddenly pushed me down with all his strength from behind,” she recalled.
“I was already afraid to take the train because of this happening,” Xu said.
“I don’t know how I’ll ever take the train in the future.”
Police said Junker – a complete stranger wearing a dirty red sweatshirt – allegedly pushed her onto the roadbed without saying a word.
Xu, who wasn’t able to stand up, frantically started checking to make sure the train wasn’t coming her way.
“I was worried about the arrival of the train,” she recalled.
“I tried my best to get out.”
As her attacker fled, fellow straphangers rushed to her aid and pulled her back onto the platform, law-enforcement sources said.
“There were a lot of people next to me and they pulled me out,” Xu said, adding she had to “endure the pain” as she was lifted off the tracks.
She was brought to NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital where doctors confirmed a leg fracture, Xu said.
“They scanned my leg at the hospital. The doctor told me that it was a fracture. I’m taking painkillers now. I can’t lift the leg up,” she said, with her limb bandaged and bound in an immobilizer.
Xu, who said she doesn’t have medical insurance, added that doctors warned her she’d need surgery to reset the bone properly.
She said she never even got a look at the creep who pushed her.
Junker, of White Plains, has no prior arrests in the Big Apple, cops said.
The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect — captured wearing a red shirt — Wednesday night in the hopes of identifying him.
“I think this person must be crazy,” Xu said.