Teen busted in death of good Samaritan in New Year’s day subway platform clash
Members of the NYPD Bronx Warrants Squad grabbed Noel Rosado, 19, outside an apartment building on Westchester Ave. Friday on charges related to a subway platform crash.
The teen was involved in a New Year’s morning subway platform clash that ended with a good Samaritan crushed by a Bronx train as he tried to rescue a man pushed to the tracks, police said Saturday.
Detectives identified Rosado as one of a dozen teens who got angry at a drunken 38-year-old man wandering around the platform at the Fordham Road station in Fordham Heights and blowing a horn to celebrate the start of the new year.
An argument broke out and the teens attacked, punching and kicking the man repeatedly as they rifled through his fanny pack, taking his wallet and cash, prosecutors said.
One of the teens flashed a knife, cops said.
As assault victim laid on the ground, he “was forced off the subway platform and onto the train tracks below,” prosecutors said.
That’s when Roland Hueston tried to help.
Hueston jumped down onto the tracks and tried to flag the approaching train as he attended to the injured man, prosecutors said.
The train slammed into Hueston, killing him. Yet his sacrifice slowed the train down before it hit the man sprawled out on the tracks.
The assault victim escaped death thanks to Hueston’s help, suffering only a fractured arm, police said.
The teens scattered. Police released surveillance images of the suspects and asked the public to help track them down.
Rosado is the oldest of the four teens charged in Hueston’s death. The other three boys, a 16-year-old and two 17-year-olds, voluntarily surrendered to police.
Seven others, including three teen girls, were still being sought Saturday.
The arrested teens claimed the fight broke out when they spotted a gun sticking out of the drunk man’s fanny pack, according to court papers. A gun was never recovered at the scene.
Hueston didn’t know the man he died saving, his relatives said.
“He cared a lot about the people around him and would do anything for them,” his mother Milicent said.
“Although he didn’t know the person he tried to save, we’re not surprised that he tried to save them when they needed him the most. He’s a hero and will continue to be remembered as a hero in our family and in the community.”
Detectives charged Rosado with murder, manslaughter, robbery and other counts.
At arraignment Saturday in Bronx Criminal Court, he was ordered held on bail of $250,000 cash or $750,000 bond.
