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On Monday, October 24, Lamale McRae, 41, was arrested for an unprovoked attack on a man who was shoved into the Brooklyn subway tracks last week.
The Friday, October 21 attack was caught on video. It showed McRae charging at victim David Martin and shoving him onto the tracks without provocation and then fleeing the scene. Subsequently, a video captured the arrest of Lamale McRae, who was taken into custody at around 11.30 am, near his Brooklyn home by the Queens Warrants Squad in New York.
The suspect was charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and harassment in connection with the unprovoked attack that left the victim, a 32-year-old man who had broken his collarbone in the subway incident, unable to move for at least six weeks.
Lamale McRae served twenty years in prison for attempted murder
According to the Daily Beast, Lamale McRae has a long history of arrests for violent crimes, including shooting a man near his Brooklyn home.
As per the outlet, McRae was released on parole in 2018 after serving twenty years in prison for a 1997 attempted murder and robbery in the Bronx.
Police reportedly identified McRae with the help of facial recognition after he was caught on surveillance video fleeing the scene where he barreled into 32-year-old David Martin standing on a Manhattan-bound L train platform at the Myrtle-Wyckoff station in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
The incident, which occurred around 2:40 pm, horrified witnesses at the scene. In a statement to WABC-TV, David Martin detailed the harrowing incident that has left him bedridden and unable to work.
The statement read:
“In the blink of an eye, I was pushed with full force into the train tracks. People were told that I had no injuries, but I am laying in bed with a broken collarbone and my face is so swollen. And mentally, I don’t know how to even get through this.”
Martin, seemingly traumatized by the attack, added that he no longer feels safe taking the train.
Family of Lamale McRae allege he suffers from a mental illness
Lamale McRae’s relatives told The New York Post that the suspect allegedly suffered a psychotic episode after his mother died of dementia about two years ago.
Mcrae’s cousin, who identified herself as Kay to the outlet, said:
“He was off. Something is wrong with him. That’s why he can’t stay here. He’s been off for two years now.”
Kay said that McRae was a patient at Woodhull, a mental health facility in the Brooklyn area, but was released. However, it is unclear when McRae sought treatment at the facility.
She added:
“He was a good person and went crazy out of nowhere.”
McRae's neighbor also alluded to his declining mental state and said that she found his behavior deteriorating for several years.
She told the Post:
“It’s not like there weren't things leading up to this. He had some incidents attacking cars out front. He was mad at the cars or whatever.”
According to the NYPD, subway crime has increased by 41 per cent this year. Two days after David Martin was attacked by McRae at Bronx Subway station, a 62-year-old straphanger was punched in the face and knocked to the tracks in another unprovoked attack at the station.
