The deadly push of a 40-year-old Asian woman onto the subway tracks in Times Square, an apparently unprovoked tragedy, should not have happened, MTA officials said Tuesday. This while talking about the need for more police and other resources in the transit system to serve people with mental health problems.
The MTA addressed the murder of Michelle Alyssa Go during an off-topic question-and-answer session. The agency said its workforce, like many others, has been hit by COVID-induced staffing shortages that have forced service cuts, among other issues.
The MTA’s challenges come amid a pandemic that has led to a spike in anti-Asian crime throughout New York City and separately further exposed the crisis of the mentally ill and homeless in the subways. This has increased the call to action.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has strongly condemned the attack, in his first week in office held a joint press conference with Governor Kathy Hochul in which they both promised to increase homeless outreach in the entire city subway system, and address a core quality of life issue to get workers back to city offices.
In addition to that effort, Adams said officers on patrol would also be tasked with entering the subway system and conducting visual inspections to identify potential public safety issues. Homeless outreach was still to be left to what the new mayor coined Safe Options and Support (SOS) teams.
Such multidisciplinary teams would be comprised of eight to 10 professionals with backgrounds in fields ranging from social work to medicine and other related fields. The New York City Police also pledged to deploy hundreds more officers to the subways, an increase potentially designed to counter widespread perceptions of a transit system plagued by crime and people found to be homeless on the subways.
The individual accused of killing Go on Saturday after allegedly pushing her into the subway tracks at the Q/R platform near 42nd Street and Broadway fits that description, authorities said. He also has a history of mental illness.
That man, Simon Martial, 61, fled the scene after Go’s murder but later turned himself in to police. Law enforcement officials have said he has at least three prior emotionally disturbed encounters with the NYC Police, is likely homeless, and has multiple prior arrests.
Martial is not believed to have had any interaction with Go prior to the push, authorities said. He has been charged with second-degree murder in the case.
Attorney information for him was not immediately clear Tuesday.
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