NYC man struck by train was rushing to bring wife to dialysis appointment
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The 48-year-old man who died Monday after falling on subway tracks and being hit by a train after a scuffle was a father of three rushing home to take his wife to a doctor’s appointment.
Heriberto Quintana died Monday after bumping into a fellow passenger on the platform and throwing his phone on the train tracks.
When he refused to pick up the phone, the two passengers fought and Quintana ended up on the tracks with a train approaching him at the Queens tube station.
Hilda Rojas says she had been waiting for her husband to take her to a dialysis treatment appointment, but learned of his death when he didn’t show up.
She says she got a call from the hospital that her husband was there. When she asked to talk to him and was told no, she knew something was wrong.
Hilda Rojas learned of her husband’s death after she received a call from the hospital Monday night when he failed to show up to take her to a dialysis appointment
The devastated widow told PIX11 through tears: ‘I want justice for my husband because they took his life just because of a phone. He was my helper. He was my breadwinner, and now I’m alone.’
In an interview with CBS, Rojas said Quintana was a devoted father of a 14-year-old and two grown children.
She said he was a nice man who didn’t fight anyone.
Quintana and Rojas had lived in the US for decades after emigrating from Mexico.
Quintana worked in construction to support his family. His wife said he had recently changed jobs and that’s why he started taking the train.
One of Quintana’s sons described the incident on PIX11:
“The conflict that arose from my father accidentally pushing the man bumped him. And I think the guy dropped his phone on the train tracks. And the man got angry, and then the conflict began – the fight. It’s crazy, about a fucking cell phone.’
The family says they hope they can collect money to transport Quintana’s body back to Mexico for burial.
Garcia appeared in court on Monday night. He was held overnight and arraigned Tuesday
Garcia to be caught Tuesday afternoon after being charged with manslaughter
Joanna Garcia, wife of Carlos Garcia, leaves Queens court after her husband is brought to court in Queens
Carlos Garcia, 50, appears before Judge Lentz at the Brooklyn Criminal Court for the murder of Herberto Quintana. He was taken into custody on Tuesday
Garcia reportedly got into a physical altercation with Quintana after the two bumped into each other on the Queens platform and Garcia’s phone fell on the rails
Carlos Garcia, 50, was charged with manslaughter on Tuesday after the incident. He appeared in court on Monday evening and has been arrested. According to ABC7he has no significant criminal history.
After Quintana bumped into Garcia causing his phone to fall on the rails, Garcia demanded that Quintana go get his phone and when he refused, the two started arguing in Spanish and a pushing fight ensued.
According to the NYPD, Garcia was removed from under the train with serious body injuries and transported by EMD to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Quintana died of blunt force injuries and his death was labeled manslaughter, according to the Chief Medical Examiner’s office.
In any case, he is the twelfth person to have been pushed in front of a subway so far this year, and the second to die.
MTA chairman Richard Davey spoke about the incident on Tuesday during a stop in Union Square.
“My God, please, de-escalate situations,” he said. “We can get your phones or person effects falling on the rails. We do it all the time.’
While the MTA has focused on placing more officers at subway stations in recent months, despite officers being on the platform on Monday, their presence doesn’t always help.
“The police were on the platform yesterday when that incident took place.
“In some of these senseless crimes that are taking place, not even the presence of the police has been able to stop that,” Davey said.
Despite consistent petty and violent crime happening in the city this year, New York City Mayor Eric Adams claimed Monday that it’s just a “perception” that crime in the Big Apple is “getting out of control.”
Adams said Monday that he and police are fighting “actual crime.” The current average of “six crimes a day” on the subway “doesn’t seem like things are getting out of hand,” he said.
He admitted there are “too many guns” on the streets of New York, but added that the NYPD has done a “great job” confiscating thousands of firearms.
The mayor, barely audible by the sound of sirens blaring in the background, added: “We are dealing with real crimes that include eight murders and the perception of fear that people feel.
‘That’s the combination I’m dealing 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 commitment’ [of NYPD officers] and increase that police coverage.’
In his election, Adams vowed to crack down on subway crime with the introduction of a special train task force.
The group has yet to make a dent in the deteriorating crime issue.
In January, Adams also introduced his “subway safety plan,” which put more than 1,000 extra officers a day on the city’s subways.
After 10 and a half months of the initiative, crime in the city’s underground transport tunnels remains over 40% higher than in the same period in 2021.