The death of a man who was shoved in front of an oncoming New York City subway train spurred a police hunt on Friday for the woman seen pushing him, as the second such violent death this month left its imprint on the city's millions of subway riders.
The woman appeared to be mumbling to herself and pacing, witnesses told police, before she approached the man from behind on the platform of an elevated station in the borough of Queens and shoved him onto the subway track Thursday evening.
She ran from the station to the street in a scene caught on video footage that the police released on Friday as they searched for the unidentified woman, who, they said, was last seen wearing a ski jacket along with red and gray Nikes.
The death in Queens was the second time this month that a New York subway rider was killed after being pushed onto the tracks - a chilling notion for anyone who uses the city's transit system - and came just ahead of the New Year's holiday in a city choked with visitors.
"To say that it's only two in, you know, a long period of time doesn't help either person," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Friday on WOR Radio 710 AM's "The John Gambling Show."
Police said it remains unclear whether the woman being sought knew the victim, who they initially had trouble identifying because his body had been so badly mangled by the train. He has yet to be named.
In New York's subway stations, some took added precautions Friday, standing a few extra feet away from the platform edge. Commuter Chloe Morris, traveling from New Jersey, said she prefers to sit on a bench rather than stand on the platform while waiting for a train.
"I don't come close to the edge until a train comes," Morris said as she waited in the Times Square station. "There's too many crazy people in the world."
On December 3, Ki-Suck Han was killed after being shoved onto subway tracks in Manhattan as a train entered the 49th Street station near Times Square. A suspect, Naeem Davis, has been charged with second-degree murder.
Including Thursday's incident, 139 people were struck by New York City subway trains so far in 2012, 54 of them fatally, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman said on Friday, adding that the tally was preliminary and subject to change.
