NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – The man suspected of critically injuring a woman in a subway shoving in Midtown this week was arrested Thursday in Newark, police said.
Sabir Jones, 39, was detained by Newark officers at McCarter Highway and Raymond Boulevard shortly after noon, according to police.
He was then transferred to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Jones is emotionally disturbed and known to the NYPD, officials said Wednesday as they launched an intensive manhunt for him.
Police believe he’s the man who shoved a 30-year-old woman Wednesday afternoon. The victim was standing on a southbound E platform at the Fifth Avenue/53rd Street station around noon when a man shoved her into a departing train.
“As the train was pulling out of the station, she was pushed, causing her head to strike the moving train,” NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said. “The train departed the station and then she fell onto the roadbed.”
Good Samaritans quickly helped the woman from the tracks to the platform and called 911.
She suffered head trauma and remained in critical condition after emergency surgery.
Jones fled on foot and was last seen exiting the station at West 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue.
In a similar attack on the Upper East Side in May, a 35-year-old woman was "instantly paralyzed" when she was randomly shoved and hit her head on a moving E train. A 39-year-old man was arrested on charges of attempted murder and assault in that case.
Fifteen people have been shoved in the subway system this year through Oct. 15, according to the New York Times.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.