A Rego Park woman last week admitted to shoving a man to his death as a 7 train entered a Sunnyside station in December, 2012, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Erika Menendez, 33, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, and will be sentenced to anywhere between 22 and 25 years in prison, for pushing Sunnando Sen, 46, from behind onto the tracks as the train came into the 40th Street-Lowery Street station. Sen, an Indian immigrant and print shop owner who had been working on a PhD. in economics at New York University at the time of his death, was struck by the train and died of multiple blunt force trauma, Brown said.
According to the criminal complaint, Menendez was seen talking to herself and pacing back and forth on the subway platform prior to shoving Sen. In her interview with detectives, she indicated that she had attacked Sen because she hated Hindus and Muslims since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Characterized in several reports as being mentally ill, Menendez has a history of violent outbursts. In one incident in 2003, she blitzed retired Fire Department Battalion Chief Danny Conlisk in a bizarre unprovoked assault as he took out the trash in front of his Ridgewood home, punching and clawing at his face and screaming.
Menendez is scheduled to be formally sentenced on April 29.
By Michael V. Cusenza michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
