A 39-year-old man was charged on Tuesday with shoving a woman’s head against a moving subway train in an apparently random attack at a Manhattan station that left the woman critically injured, police said.
The man, Kamal Semrade, was arrested late Monday at a homeless shelter near La Guardia Airport in Queens, police said. He was charged with attempted murder and assault and was awaiting arraignment Tuesday evening, officials said.
The shoving episode was the latest unsettling example of the kind of random violent crime that has made some New Yorkers wary of the subway and has led officials to flood stations with police officers to reassure riders that the mass-transit system is safe.
Mr. Semrade and his victim, who is 35, boarded the same E train early Sunday, with Mr. Semrade entered first by jumping a turnstile, the police said. Both got off when the train stopped at the Lexington Avenue/63rd Street station at around 6 am, the police said (the E was running on the F line because of track work).
As the train began to pull out, the police said, Mr. Semrade approached the woman from behind and pushed her head into it, causing her to fall back onto the platform. She was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in critical condition with spinal injuries and cuts to her head, police said.
The police did not release the woman’s name, but an online fund-raiser established to help pay her medical expenses identifies her as Emine Yilmaz Oszoy, an illustrator and designer.
Maria Cramer and Andy Newman contributed reporting. Kirsten Noyes contributed research.