Man charged in fatal subway push deemed unfit for trial
The man charged with fatally shoving an Asian American woman onto the subway tracks in Times Square in January has been deemed unfit to stand trial, prosecutors say.
Martial Simon was placed into the custody of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene at a court appearance Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Wednesday.
Simon will remain in the department’s custody until he is deemed fit, the spokesperson added. He is currently being held at the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward in Manhattan, city Department of Correction records show.
Simon was charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly pushed 40-year-old Michelle Go onto the tracks as a train pulled into the Times Square-42nd Street subway station on Jan. 15, prosecutors said.
Go was standing on the southbound NQR train platform when the attack happened, authorities said.
At a news conference held after the attack, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the push was “unprovoked,” adding that Go did “not appear to have had any interaction with [Simon].”
Last month, Simon’s attorney, H. Mitchell Schuman, said doctors at Bellevue Hospital had deemed him unfit to stand trial.
“I expect that after the court deems Mr. Simon to be unfit, he will be placed in a secure hospital where his serious and long standing mental illness can be treated,” Schuman said in a statement at the time.
While Simon was not charged with a hate crime at his arraignment in January, Go’s death came amid a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in New York City.
