Brooklyn man shoved onto subway tracks recounts dodging train, third rail in brush with death
Published in News & Features
NEW YORK — A man shoved into the path of an oncoming train in Brooklyn told The New York Daily News how he narrowly missed landing on the track’s deadly third rail before scrambling back onto the platform just before the train rushed into the station
“As soon as I jumped up on the platform, the incoming (train)… pulled into the station. As soon as I got up,” Brooklyn resident Jonathan Khadaroo, 33, recalled of surviving the attack, in an exclusive interview.
“I was like, ‘Wow!'”
A plumber and construction workers who was born in the borough, Khadaroo chalks up his survival to being in top physical shape — plus a jolt of panic — which enabled him to propel himself back to safety in time.
Andrew Pashinin, 19, was arrested at a relative’s home in Yonkers on Tuesday and charged with attempted murder for shoving Khadaroo onto the tracks at the Atlantic Ave.-Barclays Center station just before noon on Dec. 7.
Khadaroo was on the station’s southbound D and N train platform when he said a masked Pashinin, who was a stranger to him, pulled out a GoPro camera and began recording him.
“I don’t know what happened but this guy, when I noticed him on the platform, he pulled out a GoPro and started recording me. I didn’t know who the hell this was,” Khadaroo recounted. “We were having an exchange and then at the end, I put up my hands (and said,) ‘What are you doing? Why are you recording me?’”
It was after Khadaroo picked up his bags, turned his back on the other man and started to walk away from the bizarre encounter that his attacker shoved him from behind, he told the Daily News.
“I was trying to get away from him… I didn’t expect him to run up and push me. I was in complete shock,” he said.
The victim described the pain of landing on his knee and thigh, the confusion of finding himself suddenly sprawled on the tracks below, and the terror that drove him back onto the platform.
“I landed sideways on my side,” Khadaroo said. “I hit my knee and I hit my thigh. That area is still messed up, my thigh, I can still feel pain there.
“When I landed on the tracks, I was, like, so scared, I just jumped back up as soon as I could. But I was in a lot of pain. My leg still hurts to this day.”
Khadaroo dodged death twice: once when he escaped from the train’s path, and before that, when he landed mere inches from the track’s electrified third rail, he said.
“I landed right next to it and between the third and second,” he said. “Thank (God), I didn’t touch it.”
The victim recounted his ordeal before a grand jury on Wednesday.
“When I saw the video, I saw exactly how much time I didn’t have,” he said. “It was pretty surreal.”
The victim, who described himself as “naturally athletic,” said he was saved by his own workout routine, which includes a “muscle-up” exercise that allowed him to quickly haul himself back onto the platform.
The adrenaline and terror he experienced didn’t hurt either, he added.
“I guess it was just instinct and fear that just made me just do it quick,” Khadaroo said, “and I’m glad that I did it quick.”
Khadaroo’s injuries from the attack have left him physically unable to work for the moment as he hopes for a full recovery. But he said the suspect’s arrest earlier this week at least has made riding the subway easier for him, helping him put the traumatic event behind him.
“Yesterday…when I finally got to see the picture and the video of this guy, you know how relieved I was?” he said. “I’ve been riding the train for like a month now and I’ve been shook.
“Every time someone that I see with that damn mask on that kind of fits that bill, I’m like shook.”
Pashinin pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday in Brooklyn Criminal Court where a judge ordered him held on $200,000 cash or $400,000 bond.
The defendant told investigators he was frustrated at having been bullied that day before encountering Khadaroo, adding he looked both ways before shoving the victim onto the tracks to make sure there were no oncoming trains, sources said.
Khadaroo said he sympathizes with his would-be killer, wondering how a guy that young could act out so violently, and hoping he gets the help he needs.
“I would want to say that it’s unfortunate that he got himself in trouble like that,” the victim said. “I just think, what the hell? Whatever the hell he’s going through that he could do something like that at that age. I just feel bad for him.”
For himself, Khadaroo said being shoved in front of a train has given him a new perspective and that he’ll be keeping his head on a swivel while commuting.
“This is a crazy city,” he said. “You got to be on point.”
(John Annese contributed to this report.)
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