{"id":159605,"date":"2026-03-10T20:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/159605\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T20:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:42:09","slug":"grandfather-pushed-unprovoked-onto-manhattan-subway-tracks-may-not-survive-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/159605\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandfather pushed unprovoked onto Manhattan subway tracks may not survive: family"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 83-year-old Air Force veteran pushed onto the subway tracks<\/a> by a stranger at an Upper East Side station in a random act of violence is unlikely to survive, his herabroken daughter told the Daily News Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Richard Williams was waiting on the downtown platform for the F and Q trains at the Lexington Avenue-63rd St. station when he was suddenly shoved about 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Moments before, the assailant pushed a 30-year-old man standing next to Williams onto the tracks as well without saying a word, cops said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t look good,\u201d Williams\u2019 eldest daughter, Debbie Williams, told The News from her father\u2019s bedside at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell. \u201cHe is on life support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just going to stay by his bed,\u201d she added. \u201cWe\u2019re sitting here with him. We\u2019re praying for him and we love him and we\u2019re going to stay with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The younger victim helped Richard to his feet and straphangers then helped both men back onto the platform before a train came. Their attacker ran off.<\/p>\n

Cops and U.S. Marshals arrested a person of interest<\/a> in the attack around 5 a.m. Tuesday, police sources said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled,\u201d Debbie said of the arrest.<\/p>\n

Her father hasn\u2019t been able to speak since arriving at the hospital.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice released images of a man they believe shoved two men onto the subway tracks in unprovoked attacks at the Lexington Avenue-63rd St. subway station in the Upper East Side. (NYPD)<\/p>\n

Richard was healthy and active before the attack, his daughter said. He recently celebrated his 55th wedding anniversary and was enjoying living his life after a career making bulletproof equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an incredible man,\u201d Debbie said. \u201cHe likes reading. He likes walking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard lives on Roosevelt Island and was on his way to go shopping on the Upper East Side \u201clike he always does\u201d when he was attacked, his daughter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow none of that is probably going to happen again,\u201d she said. \u201cHe goes wherever he wants to go. He\u2019s very healthy for an 83 year old man that\u2019s going to be 84. There\u2019s absolutely nothing wrong with him. So for this whole thing to happen, it\u2019s a real sin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard has three daughters and two granddaughters who are all devastated his time with them might be cut short.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardest part is I can\u2019t have a conversation or hug him again,\u201d granddaughter Samantha Loria told CBS New York<\/a>. \u201cAny time I visit him, we walk around. We would go to Manhattan. He would always say hi to everyone, ask how they\u2019re dong. It doesn\u2019t hurt anything to be kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loves to walk,\u201d she added. \u201cHe survived a fire, cancer recently, and all he wanted to do is walk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woman Assaulted In Manhattan Train Station<\/p>\n

\"LexingtonLexington Ave. – E. 63rd St. subway station in Manhattan. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The other victim, who was treated and released from the same hospital, told ABC 7 New York his head and neck were injured and he developed a fever following the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI panicked. I started asking for help, not only for me but for the other man that was pushed,\u201d Jhon Rodriguez told the station<\/a>. \u201cI get panic attacks just thinking about getting (back) on the subway.\u201d<\/p>\n

RIchard and Rodriguez do not know each other or their attacker.<\/p>\n

The person of interest was caught after cops released images Rodriguez was able to shoot of him from the subway tracks and offered a $3,500 reward for information leading to his capture.<\/p>\n

He is currently being questioned and charges are pending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 83-year-old Air Force veteran pushed onto the subway tracks by a stranger at an Upper East Side…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,75,84,83,9,24,264,12,63,261,265],"class_list":["post-159605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}