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A Queens man has been charged with manslaughter for fatally shoving another straphanger in front of a New York City subway train.
Carlos Garcia, 50, was arrested just after midday on Tuesday and charged with manslaughter, the NYPD said.
Heriberto Quintana, 48, was struck by an F train at the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue station at 74th Street and Broadway in Queens around 4:45 p.m. on Monday at the height of rush hour.
He is the twelfth person to be shoved in front of a subway train so far this year, and the second to die.
Police say the suspect was standing on the platform when Quintana bumped into him as he walked by, which knocked the suspect’s cellphone on to the subway tracks, police sources tell NBC4.
Garcia then demanded Quintana go get his phone and when he refused, the two began arguing in Spanish and a shoving fight ensued.
According to the NYPD, Garcia was removed from under the train with severe trauma to the body and transported by EMD to Elmhurst Hospital where he was pronounced dead. An official cause of death is pending.
Carlos Garcia, 50, is accused of killing 48-year-old Heriberto Quintana on Monday afternoon after a tussle that led to Quintana falling onto F Train subway tracks and being hit by an oncoming train
Garcia is seen being perp walked Tuesday afternoon after being charged with manslaughter
Garcia allegedly got into a physical altercation with Quintana after the two bumped into one another on the Queens platform and Garcia’s phone fell onto the tracks
Heriberto Quintana, 48, was struck by an F train at the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Ave station at 74th Street and Broadway
Quintana was knocked on the tracks after he bumped into a man on the platform sparking a shoving match between the two
During the scuffle, Quintana was knocked on to the tracks and was struck by an oncoming F train. He was pronounced dead at Elmhurst Hospital. The suspect was taken into custody and charges are pending.
Despite the crime and subway shovings repeatedly occurring across the city this year, NYC Mayor Eric Adams claimed on Monday there is only a ‘perception’ that crime in the Big Apple is ‘out of control.’
Adams said on Monday that he and law enforcement are fighting the ‘actual crime.’ The current average of ‘six crimes a day’ on the subway does ‘not giving the impression that it is out of control,’ he said.
He admitted that there are ‘too many guns’ on the streets of New York, but added that the NYPD has done an ‘amazing job’ confiscating thousands of firearms.
The mayor, who was barely audible over the sound of sirens wailing in the background, added: ‘We are dealing with actual crimes those eight homicides and the perception of fear that people are feeling.
‘That’s the combination I must deal with, that perception and the actual crime. But we can’t get away with the fact that we have 3.5 million people using our subway system,’ he said. ‘My goal is to continue that deployment [of NYPD officers] and enhance that police coverage.’
He added that there are ‘too many guns are on the street.’
‘There is no condolence or consolation if you’re shot on the subway or on the street.
‘We brought down homicides, brought down victims of shooters, we continue to do the job.
‘Our police department done an amazing job but everyone must play their role. Judges must keep shooters in jail lawmakers make sure we don’t make laws that allow them to return to our streets – we have to prosecute these cases.
‘There are too many guns on our streets, those that are on the streets are also on the subway systems, they are also in our schools.
‘They are everywhere we are as innocent New Yorkers, there are too many guns on our streets,’ said the mayor.
The mayor’s plea for judges to keep shooters in prison comes years after New York State introduced sweeping bail reforms in an effort to reduce low-level offender prison populations.
The change allowed for the release many repeat offenders back into the community.
That was compounded in New York City by the election of District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who told his staff to avoid imposing cash bail wherever they could.
Upon his election, Adams vowed to crackdown on subway crime with the introduction of a designated train task force.
The group has not yet made a dent in the worsening crime issue.
The mayor’s comments on Monday came just days after after Jayjon Burnett, 15, was shot dead on Friday afternoon during a dispute between two groups on a Far Rockaway A train in New York.
Keyondre Russell, 18, is being held without bail on murder charges in relation to the killing, but claims that he is the real victim – saying Burnett shot him first and he acted in self-defense.
Recent data shows subway murders have risen to their highest rate in 25 years, despite plummeting ridership. Between 1997 and 2020, there were never more than five murders a year on New York City subway trains.
That number rose to six in 2020, eight in 2021 and it’s already at nine with two-and-half months left of the year.
One station cleaner, who has worked for the MTA for a decade-and-a-half, told the New York Post, ‘It’s sad this is the new normal. I’ve worked down here half my life.
‘If it’s not a subway surfer, it’s a fight; if it’s not a fight, it’s a stabbing or a shooting,’ he said. ‘I’m concerned about my own safety as an MTA employee.’
Felony crime on the subway is up by 42 percent, but ridership has almost halved since the onset of the pandemic.
In 2019, an average of 142million people rode the subway every month – around four million people a day. Now, the monthly rider average is 81million.
This is a developing story
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