NYPD arrest career criminal and aspiring rapper who shoved stranger onto subway tracks

A one-time aspiring rapper is facing charges of attempted murder and assault after he was arrested in relation to yet another random subway pushing incident in New York City. 

In 1998, Lamale McRae was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in an attempted murder and robbery. While out on parole, McRae, 41, pursued a career as a rapper. But now he has been arrested again for the shocking subway shove.  

David Martin, 32, is suffering from a broken collarbone and a swollen face after being targeted by the crazed man at the Wyckoff Avenue and Myrtle Avenue subway station at 2.40pm on Friday. 

Martin was on his way to work at a Manhattan restaurant when he was attacked. It’s not clear of McRae was employed at the time of the incident. 

On Monday, an NYPD spokesperson confirmed to DailyMail.com that McRae was in custody and was charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and harassment. 

Good Samaritans saved Martin’s life before an oncoming train could make contact with him.  

The NYPD has said that McRae was located thanks to controversial facial recognition software. 

Subway crime is up 41 percent in 2022, according to the NYPD. 

Records show that McRae, with an address on Moffat Street, Brooklyn, directly beside the Wilson Avenue L Subway station, just stops from where this heinous crime took place, has a lengthy criminal history. 

When he was 17, McRae was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for his role in an attempted murder and robbery in the Bronx. He was paroled in the case in 2010. His sentence expired in 2018. 

McRae served his time at the Queensboro Correctional Facility. 

According to posts on his Facebook page, McRae is father to a 24-year-old son. 

In 2012, McRae had a brief career as a rapper out of his native Brooklyn. He went by the moniker Source Da God and was a member of the Brooklyn Kingz collective.

The band’s most viewed music video is titled Memorial. It was released in May 2012 and has nearly 25,000 views. 

The video’s description reads: ‘Memorial is the second single from The Brooklyn Kingz Project. The song was written to commemorate those we miss and lost. Although you are missing someone take a moment and reflect on how they were apart of our lives.’ 

During his verse, McRae raps about previously being a cocaine dealer and mourns the deaths of close friends in addition to ‘all those we lost in the towers,’ an allusion to 9/11. 

He begins his section of the video by walking out of the Wilson Avenue Subway station, close to where he was apprehended on Monday in relation to the pushing attack.  

Promotional photos of the group show them promoting their music around the Downtown section of Brooklyn at the time that the Barclay’s Center was being constructed in 2012.

The Brooklyn Kingz appeared to be attempting to capitalize on the new construction and the upcoming debut of the Brooklyn Nets in the arena by releasing a track titled: Nets Anthem accompanied with the team’s official logo. 

The group does not appear to have been active post 2013. While McRae has not been active on his Facebook page since 2012 when he posted photos at his son’s middle school graduation. 

It’s not known if he has an attorney in this most recent case.  

The suspect was arrested by the Queens Warrant Squad close to his Brooklyn home on Monday morning, the New York Post reports.  

But according to his mother Audrey, the life-long New Yorker and Upper East Side waiter is now suffering mentally as well.

His mother told the New York Post that Martin is so disturbed by the attack that she had to take a knife away from him to prevent him from hurting himself.

‘Mentally I don’t know how to even get through this,’ Martin told ABC News. 

She also criticized Adams for not taking action to address a mental health crisis in the city that is spiraling out of control.

‘Mayor Adams is completely not in touch with what’s going on,’ she told the New York Post. ‘More cops? He’s wrong,’ she said, regarding plans by Adams and NY governor Kathy Hochul to increase NYPD and MTA Police numbers.  

‘There are all mental cases in the subway, and it’s not being handled at all. This is how we handle these situations – they just ignore it.’ 

Revealing the moment he realized what was happening to him during the attack, Martin said: ‘In the blink of an eye, I was pushed with full force into the train tracks.

‘Because I’m from New York, and I’ve always felt safe taking the train and now at 32-years-old, I no longer feel safe and that’s not fair, and that’s not OK,’ he added. Martin said that he has been taking the subway since he was in middle school.

Martin became the 13th victim this year — and the third in just one week — to be pushed onto the subway tracks in New York City. The horrifying moment was caught on film.

Video released by the New York Police Department on Saturday showed a man wearing a yellow sweatshirt under a black jacket with jeans and black-and-white sneakers standing with his arms crossed on the northbound L train tracks at the Wyckoff Avenue and Myrtle Avenue subway station.

He watches as Martin, in a black jacket and jeans passes by on the crowded track, before dropping the gray backpack he is carrying.

The maniac looks both ways — as if making sure there are no cops on the scene — before he sprints and tackles Martin, leading with his shoulder and hand to knock the victim off his feet.

Martin then fell sideways and tumbled onto the subway tracks, leaving his sunglasses behind on the crowded platform.

At that point, the attacker runs back to where he let his backpack and escaped through the turnstiles.

‘We moved from Manhattan to Queens because we wanted to raise our kids without homeless people on our front porch,’ Martin’s mother told the New York Post.

When asked if she had a message for Adams, she responded: ‘Is there any point in talking to him?’

‘You know what I want him to do?’ she added, ‘I want him to start building mental-health facilities.’

City Hall responded to questions from the Post, saying: ‘Mayor Adams has already spoken to Mr. Martin about the attack and how we can help.’

‘The mayor also directed his Community Affairs Team to reach out to Mr. Martin and see how we can help further. They have also already connected with Mr. Martin and are in the process of doing that,’ a representative told the Post.

Authorities say the victim was wounded, but was not hit by a train, and a transit worker told the New York Post the victim only suffered an injury to his shoulder.

Audrey Martin said making matters worse is the fact that her son doesn’t have health insurance and that he is traumatized by the attack.

‘He keeps watching it over and over. He can’t stop. It’s not good for him,’ she said.

‘People were told that I had no injuries, but I am laying in bed with a broken collarbone and my face is so swollen,’ said Martin regarding the reports of his injuries.

‘He was just in shock that it happened to him,’ the worker said. ‘It was just a random shove.’

This comes after New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the growing crime wave on the city’s subway system is just a ‘perception.’