DCPI
The subway motorman hit the brakes when he saw the doomed man 'flying in the air' right in front of his windshield - and closed his eyes as the D train hit him.
Then, he broke down a bit and cried.
'As soon as I came into 167th Street, a body just flew in the air,' a still-stunned James Muriel told the Daily News on Monday. 'I didn't see the actual push, but I knew he was pushed by the way the body traveled across the track, the high rate of speed, and everyone on the platform was crying and screaming.'
Muriel's stunning account came a day after 61-year-old Wai Kuen Kwok was pushed to his death from a Bronx subway platform by a madman who attacked without warning - and who is still at large.
'I didn't want to see it,' the grieving motorman said of the aftermath. 'I just covered my eyes, and a couple of tears fell from my eyes.'
Muriel said he had to steel himself for what he knew he had to do next - go out and see if by some miracle Kwok had survived.
'When the train finally came to a stop some passengers had to come help me out of the cab,' he said. 'I was so distraught. I couldn't walk, really. I knew the next step was for me to go to the roadbed and find the body.'
Muriel said he found Kwok beneath the third car of the train. And he was dead.
'There was a lot of yelling and screaming on the train and platform, a lot of crying,' the motorman said. 'Everyone was crying, even grown men. They were all crying and consoling each other.'
A motorman for 16 years, Muriel said he was still haunted by what happened last year when the D-line train he was operating killed a suicidal man on the tracks at the 72nd St. station.
Muriel said he couldn't work for six months because he was plagued by nightmares and mired in depression. A father of two, Muriel said he is eligible to retire in about 20 months and - after what happened Sunday - he just might do that.
'It's just too much,' he said.
Everyone was crying, even grown men. They were all crying and consoling each other.
Meanwhile, police continued to look for the stocky monster who shoved Kwok into the path of a southbound D train in Highbridge as the victim's wife watched in horror.
Yow Ho Lee, 59, told investigators her husband and the stranger had not had any interaction or exchanged any words before the deadly 8:45 a.m. push.
Afterward, the killer bolted from the station, jumping on a Bx35 bus and taking it three stops to Edward L. Grant Highway and Jesup Ave., a police source said.
Detectives have released video surveillance showing the suspect - a heavy-set, balding man - getting off the bus. He was wearing dark jeans, white sneakers and a black leather jacket over a black T-shirt with white lettering.
The footage captured him going in and out of a deli, and smoking a cigarette while walking as if nothing happened down the street.
The Bronx couple was on the way to have breakfast and do grocery shopping in Chinatown when the stranger struck.
Kwok, a father of two adult sons, worked for a kitchen supply company.
'He's a good man,' a relative said at the family's Findlay Ave. home, just several blocks from the subway station. 'He was a very good provider for the family.'
pdonohue@nydailynews.com
On a mobile device? Click here to watch video of the suspect.
Entities 0 Name: Muriel Count: 6 1 Name: Kwok Count: 4 2 Name: Bronx Count: 2 3 Name: Jesup Ave. Count: 1 4 Name: Yow Ho Lee Count: 1 5 Name: Highbridge Count: 1 6 Name: James Muriel Count: 1 7 Name: Chinatown Count: 1 8 Name: Edward L. Grant Highway Count: 1 9 Name: Wai Kuen Kwok Count: 1 10 Name: Findlay Ave. Count: 1 11 Name: Daily News Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1sVk8zf Title: Man, 61, killed by Bronx D train in front of wife Description: A 61-year-old family man standing with his wife on a Bronx subway platform Sunday was pushed to his death in front of a train by a madman who attacked without warning, cops said. A manhunt was on for the stocky stranger who without any apparent provocation shoved Wai Kuen Kwok into the path of a southbound D train in Highbridge as the victim's wife watched in horror.
