A 76-year-old man was killed after being shoved down the steps of a Chelsea subway station by a man released earlier in the day after undergoing a hospital psychiatric evaluation, police said Friday.
The attacker fled the scene at 18th St. and 7th Ave. but was located Fiday afternoon by police on the northbound C and E platform at Penn Station, officials said. Criminal charges were pending.
The incident happened Thursday, about 9:33 p.m., as the victim, Ross Falzone, was walking north on Seventh Avenue on his way to the No. 1 train station at W. 18th St. Police said surveillance video shows the attacker walking behind Falzone and, from about 30 yards away, picking up his pace, coming up behind him and and “violently pushing” Falzone down the stairs.
Falzone landed on his head about halfway down the flight of stairs, suffering a traumatic brain injury, a fractured spine and a fractured rib.
The suspect took off on foot.
Medics rushed the victim to Bellevue Hospital, but he died at 2:55 a.m. Friday, police said.
At some point after the incident, police connected the attacker to police body-worn camera footage from an incident that happened outside the 17th Precinct stationhouse on E. 51st St. five hours earlier, just before 3:30 p.m., police said.
In that incident, a man approached an officer, pulled a stick from a garbage can and held it at his side for about three seconds before dropping it, police said.
It wasn’t immediately clear what the man said, but after a brief exchange with at least one officer the man was taken into custody and driven in a patrol car to Bellevue. Police arrived at the hospital with the man at 3:39 p.m. and he later underwent a psychiatric evaluation.
At 4:39 p.m., police said, the hospital released him. It wasn’t immediately clear what treatment he’d received. Officials at Bellevue could not be immediately reached for comment.
Falzone lived on the Upper West Side.