HATE CRIME: Woman charged with murder in N.Y. subway death of Indian immigrant

In this image provided by the New York City Police Department, a composite sketch showing the woman believed to have pushed a man to his death in front of a subway train on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012 is shown. Police arrested Erica Menendez on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, after a passer-by on a street noticed she resembled the woman seen in a surveillance video. The attack was the second time this month that a man was pushed to his death in a city subway station. (AP Photo/New York City Police Department

BY COLLEEN LONG
The Associated Press

NEW YORK — A woman accused of pushing an immigrant from India to his death in front of a subway train was charged Saturday with murder as a hate crime.

Erica Menendez was arrested Saturday after a passerby on a street noticed she resembled the woman seen in a surveillance video.

Menendez told authorities she hates Hindus and Muslims, said a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.

Subway shoving victim Sunando Sen was from India, but it’s unclear if he was Muslim or Hindu.

Sen, who lived in the borough of Queens and ran a printing shop, was killed Thursday night.

Witnesses said a muttering woman pushed him on the tracks as a No. 7 train entered a Queens station, and then ran off.

It was unclear whether the woman who pushed Sen had any connection to him.

Witnesses told police the two hadn’t interacted on the platform as they waited for the No. 7 train, which runs between Manhattan and Queens.

Police released security camera video showing the woman running from the station where Sen was killed.

On Saturday, a passerby noticed a woman who resembled the woman in the video and called police, who responded, confirmed her identity and took her to a police station, where she made statements implicating herself in the crime, said police spokesman Paul Browne.

The attack was the second time this month that a man was pushed to his death in a city subway station.

A homeless man was arrested in early December and accused of shoving a man in front of a train in Times Square. He claimed he acted in self-defence and is awaiting trial.

Tags: erica menendez, hate crime, India, menendez, new york city, new york subway, subway death, sunando, theprovince.com