A Manhattan man who seriously injured a parking garage worker by shoving him onto the subway tracks in Midtown earlier in the week claimed he pushed the victim because he called him a woman.
Cops busted Derrick Mills, 49, of the Upper West Side, on Thursday evening after patrol officers recognized him from an image circulated on an NYPD flyer.
Police arrested him for assault on a 74-year-old garage worker in the E. 68th St.-Hunter College subway station on Tuesday just after midnight on the Upper East Side.
Mills was caught around the Union Square station and seemed to confess to reporters and photographers as he was escorted to the courthouse for his arraignment.
“He called me a woman,” he told the press after a reporter asked why he had shoved the elderly man. “I don’t know why.”
The attack appeared to be unprovoked, Assistant Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said earlier in the week.
“He’s standing on the platform, just waiting for the train,” Kenny said. “He’s approached, unprovoked, by a male who’s speaking to himself. He gets accused of staring at the male, and he’s spontaneously just shoved onto the tracks.”
The man was able to get back up onto the platform with the help of an MTA contractor who witnessed the assault.
Though he was able to stand after the attack, the man was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center, where doctors found rib, pelvic and spinal fractures.
“He’s hurt pretty bad,” Kenny said. “He’s gets shoved [to] the tracks. He travels a good deep distance, lands directly on his back and neck, onto the roadbed.”
Mills gave an address on W. 80th St. around the corner from Zabar’s on Broadway. All Angels’ Church shares the same address.
The suspect has at least one prior arrest for assault in Brooklyn in 2000, according to police.
His arraignment was pending Thursday night.
Kerry Burke, Janon Fisher
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