Maya Leggat, a student at Hunter College in New York, was pushed by homeless beggar Howard Mickens onto the tracks before she was hit by a train. Apparently, he did so because she refused to give him money.
Leggat, who attends Hunter College, is in Westchester hospital with severe injuries after she was pushed off of the Metro-North platform in White Plains, N.Y.
The New York Daily News reported that Leggat, 21, suffered a mangled leg and lost fingers. “She’s looking better today,” an emergency worker told the New York Post after she visited Leggat on Thursday.
Sources told the Post that she was in critical condition but is expected to survive.
Hunter College president Jennifer Raab said she had “fortunately has been able to communicate with loved ones and police, who apprehended and arrested the suspect.”
“A homeless man hangs out in front here — decides he wants to inflict some pain to somebody, asks somebody for change,” eyewitness newstand owner Gary Waxman said, according to CBS-2.
Mickens, 39, was captured on the scene by MTA officials. He has a violent past and several felonies.
“My biggest concern is that he has been allowed to walk on that platform for six months without anybody doing anything about it,” father Rob Leggat told the Post.
In a court hearing on Thursday, Mickens appeared agitated.
“No disrespect, judge,” Mickens said at the hearing, according to LoHud.com. “I just don’t want to get railroaded, especially by individuals who have been trying to kill me since I was a child. When I close my eyes I see colors and darkness.”
The Daily News said Mickens did three prison terms for 11 years between 1992 and 2006.
He will be back in court on Oct. 25.
Mickens, who stays at a nearby homeless shelter, was ordered to be held without bail.
