MTA worker Ángel Oquendo was honored as a hero for jumping into action to save a man who was pushed onto the New York Subway tracks in Brooklyn seconds before a train arrived.
The incident occurred Tuesday morning at the 25th Street stop on the R line in the Sunset Park neighborhood. It all started as a fight on the platform. It’s unclear what it was, but the suspect pushed the victim onto the tracks while Oquendo was working.
The 54-year-old man fell onto the roadbed, and that’s when Oquendo jumped in to help. I looked at the gentleman. He was in shock because he saw the train coming too,” he said as he was honored Thursday night. “He gave me his arm. I picked it up. I asked him if it hurt him in any way. He told me no. No scratches, he didn’t want to fill out a report. So, I went about my business like a normal day after that.”
But the action did not go unnoticed. “It’s a testament to how we spend our lives day after day with our hard work and dedication and how much we mean to New York City,” he told ABC News Richard Davis, president of TWU Local 100. “And we will continue to do that and I want to make sure that our members, all of our members are heroes.”
In addition, the police quickly apprehended the suspect in this incident: Charles Williams, 27, was charged with assault and reckless endangerment. As for the victim, he suffered no injuries.
It’s not the first time Oquendo has been recognized as a hero, receiving a commendation from Gov. Kathy Hochul after helping passengers escape a mass shooting that also took place at a Sunset Park station in April 2022.