{"id":161801,"date":"2026-03-12T21:43:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/161801\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T21:43:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:43:43","slug":"daughter-of-elderly-manhattan-subway-shove-victim-praying-for-miracle-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/161801\/","title":{"rendered":"Daughter of elderly Manhattan subway-shove victim praying for miracle recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

An elderly Air Force veteran fighting for his life after being shoved by a stranger onto the tracks of a Manhattan subway station<\/a> loves New York City, and is especially fond of taking the train, his daughter said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Debbie Williams said she is praying that a miracle can save her 83-year-old dad, Richard Williams, who remained in critical condition with head injuries days after a heartless madman pushed him and another passenger off the platform<\/a> at a busy Upper East Side station.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father loves the city,\u201d the distraught daughter said. \u201cHe was on his way to get sushi. He took the subway all the time, He\u2019s always been a New Yorker. He raised his three daughters on Long Island.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RichardRichard Williams is tended to by FDNY firefighters after he was randomly shoved to the subway tracks. (Courtesy of Jhon Rodriguez)<\/p>\n

Before the cruel attack at the Lexington Ave.-63rd St. station, Williams was active, vibrant and healthy, and didn\u2019t think twice about leaving his Roosevelt Island home to run errands in Manhattan, she said<\/p>\n

Never did Williams suspect that he would be the victim of the kind of vicious attack he\u2019d read about and heard about so many times before.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s unresponsive,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s on a respirator. No changes. He\u2019s considered critical. We\u2019re praying for a miracle. It\u2019s horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RichardRichard Williams, now 83, pictured in younger days when he served in the Air Force as a jet mechanic. (Courtesy of Family)<\/p>\n

She said the dire situation is hardest on Williams\u2019 wife of 55 years, with whom he had just celebrated an anniversary. She said her father hasn\u2019t been able to speak since the Sunday morning attack.<\/p>\n

The daughter said she was comforted some by the kindness of strangers, including Jhon Rodriguez, 30, who was shoved to the same downtown tracks moments before her father. Despite his own injuries, Rodriguez and a good Samaritan got an unconscious Rodriguez back up onto the platform before a train barreled into the station.<\/p>\n

Cops said neither Rodriguez nor Williams knew the accused subway shover.<\/p>\n

Bairon Hernandez, 34, was arrested hours later<\/a>, and charged with two counts of first-degree assault at his Manhattan Criminal Court arraignment for the back-to-back shovings.<\/p>\n

\"SuspectSuspect Bairon Hernandez, 34, who allegedly shoved two people onto the subway tracks on Sunday, being perp-walked by detectives on the Upper East Side on March 10, 2026. (Kerry Burke\/New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The Honduran national had two previous convictions in New Jersey and Texas related to illegally entering the U.S. The outcome of those cases was not immediately available.<\/p>\n

Cops took Hernandez into custody<\/a> Tuesday at a Brooklyn homeless shelter after someone called the NYPD in response to photos law enforcement disseminated to the public, police sources previously told The News.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 daughter said she was relieved a suspect was in custody.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope he rots in hell,\u201d she said. \u201cTo push one person down and then to push another down? I thank God that young man that was pushed first \u2014 that man, I have to give him my thanks. He helped my father out of the tracks, carried him pretty much. The people there that helped, it was amazing what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An elderly Air Force veteran fighting for his life after being shoved by a stranger onto the tracks…\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-161801","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\/161801","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=161801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161801\/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=161801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}