{"id":332129,"date":"2026-08-28T20:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T20:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/332129\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T20:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T20:04:15","slug":"new-jersey-model-cleared-of-charges-in-fatal-punching-of-nyc-straphanger-as-video-backs-self-defense-claims-da","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/332129\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey model cleared of charges in fatal punching of NYC straphanger as video backs self defense claims: DA"},"content":{"rendered":"

A male model from New Jersey charged with delivering a fatal blow to a Penn Station straphanger<\/a> had his case dropped Thursday \u2014 after video surveillance backed his claim that he was acting in self defense, Manhattan prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

The footage showed that suspect Nassadir Tate, 22, only slugged Eweka Johnson, 55, when Johnson first bumped into him and then raised his fists in a fighting motion on the uptown E train platform at Penn Station on March 14.<\/p>\n

Tate tried walking around Johnson -\u2014 but Johnson appeared to inflame the situation by stepping into Tate\u2019s path and putting up his dukes in an effort to fight, the video shows.<\/p>\n

The Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office dropped its assault case against Nassadir Tate, 22. Instagram\/yeahimnaz<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said they believed that Nassadir Tate had acted in self-defense when he struck Eweka Johnson on the platform at Penn Station. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Tate \u2014 who describes himself as a \u201cpart-time model\u201d and programmer on his LinkedIn \u2014 slugged Johnson one time in the face before leaving the scene and making a call, which was later verified to be a call to 911, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Just two minutes after the blow, Johnson\u2019s knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground. He was later pronounced dead due to a ruptured cerebral artery aneurism caused by the fatal punch, the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office said at the hearing.<\/p>\n

Tate was arrested and charged with assault over the scuffle.<\/p>\n

He admitted to police that he punched Johnson one time in the face because he \u201cfeared for his physical safety,\u201d prosecutors said \u2014 claiming that he believed they were about to fight.<\/p>\n

Eweka Johnson had died due to injuries from the punch, prosecutors said. Marie Pohl for New York Post<\/p>\n

A relative of Tate had told The Post at the time of the arrest that Tate was a \u201cgood kid\u201d who \u201cnever found trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not a troubled person. He\u2019s not an instigator. He\u2019s not a violent person,\u201d the relative had said.<\/p>\n

Tate\u2019s attorney, Wayne Gosnell, did not immediately respond to request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A male model from New Jersey charged with delivering a fatal blow to a Penn Station straphanger had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[357,75,9545,84,83,57,9,24,63,7968,1687,58],"class_list":["post-332129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-assaults","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-criminal-court","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-penn-station","tag-subways","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332129","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=332129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}