FILE – A NYPD police officer on the New York Subway.
Photo by Dean Moses
Police are investigating a horrific death at a Brooklyn subway station on Monday evening in which a man was fatally dragged by a moving train in an apparent freak accident.
According to police sources, the horrific incident unfolded inside the Utica Avenue station on the A line at approximately 5:48 p.m. on Sept. 28.
Based on a preliminary investigation, police said the victim, 57-year-old Yaw Boahene, was on the Manhattan-bound platform when a plastic bag he carried became trapped in the closing doors of a waiting A train as it was about to pull away. Sources say he was last seen using a cane as he struggled to walk and carried a plastic bag as he exited the train, when the bag became caught in the closing doors.
Cops said the train then began moving away from the station, dragging the commuter along the platform. Sources say Boahene attempted alert the conductor and hit the doors with his cane but to no avail. He was pulled into the gap between the train and the track where he was struck by a pole at the end of the station. By the time the motorman realized what happened, it was already too late.
Members of NYPD Transit District 33 responded to the scene along with EMS units, who pronounced the man dead just after 6 p.m. Monday night.
No criminality is suspected at this time, police sources said. The investigation remains ongoing.
amNewYork reached out to the MTA for comment about the incident, and is awaiting a response.