{"id":225860,"date":"2026-05-09T19:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T19:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/225860\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T19:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T19:43:11","slug":"nyc-suspect-freed-from-psych-hold-hours-before-fatal-subway-shoving-of-76-year-old-former-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/225860\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC suspect freed from psych hold hours before fatal subway shoving of 76-year-old former teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"

32-year-old Rhamell Burke had just been released from a psych ward<\/a> when he allegedly shoved an elderly man down a flight of stairs to his death Thursday night in Manhattan, according to the New York Post.<\/p>\n

Cops detained Burke and took him to Bellevue Hospital on Thursday afternoon, a New York Police Department source told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

The officers reportedly marked him down as an “emotionally disturbed person,” according to the Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But a little over an hour later, Burke was released. Five hours after that, Burke allegedly pushed 76-year-old former teacher Ross Falzone down a flight of subway stairs<\/a> in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, killing the elderly man, an NYPD source confirmed to Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

Police told the Post that Burke had been “acting erratically<\/a>” outside an NYPD station house when they arrested him. He was allegedly wielding a stick that he had grabbed from a garbage can.<\/p>\n

Nyc Man Charged With Attempted Murder After Allegedly Shoving Commuter In Path Of Subway<\/a><\/p>\n

Read On The Fox News App<\/a><\/p>\n

“We brought him in at 3:30 p.m. and he was released just before 5 p.m. Meanwhile, if you or I walked into Bellevue for a headache, it would take 8 hours just to be seen. NYPD uses its involuntary removal powers<\/a> all the time. And they just get right out with an Advil,” one high-ranking NYPD officer reportedly told the Post.<\/p>\n

Officers reportedly found Falzone unconscious and unresponsive and rushed him to Bellevue where he was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n

Authorities said he had suffered a traumatic brain injury<\/a>, right rib fracture and spinal fracture, according to the Post.<\/p>\n

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“He\u2019s just a helpless old guy. What a cowardly and idiotic thing to do,” Falzone’s neighbor Marc Stager told the Post.<\/p>\n

When officers arrested Burke on Thursday, it was his fifth arrest of 2026<\/a>. He had been picked up for alleged robbery, resisting arrest and allegedly assaulting a Port Authority police officer in February and was also arrested on charges of allegedly assaulting a stranger in April, according to the Post.<\/p>\n

“There’s no amount of anger that we can express, and shock,” Falzone’s sister, Donna, told ABC7<\/a> Eyewitness News. “I mean, to get a call like that at 4 in the morning, you know, just, you know, to find out your brother’s minding his own business, three witnesses, and push down the steps and left for dead.”<\/p>\n

Nyc Mayor Mamdani Under Fire For Defending Knife-wielding Suspect Over Police Officers<\/a><\/p>\n

Donna also revealed that her brother was a retired special education teacher with a doctorate from Columbia University.<\/p>\n

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> announced a city probe into Bellevue’s handling of Burke’s psychiatric evaluation in the wake of the killing.<\/p>\n

\"Mayor<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a May Day rally at Washington Square Park in New York City on May 1, 2026.<\/p>\n

(AP Images)<\/p>\n

Click Here To Download The Fox News App<\/a><\/p>\n

“I am horrified by the killing of Ross Falzone and the circumstances that led to it. I extend my condolences to his loved ones,” Mamdani said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“New Yorkers<\/a> deserve answers. That is why I\u2019ve directed NYC Health + Hospitals to conduct both an immediate investigation on what steps should have been taken to prevent this tragedy and a comprehensive review of their psychiatric evaluation and discharge protocols,” he said.<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital contacted the NYPD, the mayor’s office and Bellevue Hospital for comment but did not immediately receive a response.<\/p>\n

Original article source: NYC suspect freed from psych hold hours before fatal subway shoving of 76-year-old former teacher<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"32-year-old Rhamell Burke had just been released from a psych ward when he allegedly shoved an elderly man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4121,7462,9,15454,4330,56,63,65,64,88622,88621],"class_list":["post-225860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-bellevue-hospital","tag-fox-news-digital","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-police-department","tag-new-york-post","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-rhamell-burke","tag-ross-falzone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225860","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=225860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}