More Troubles At Union Square as Man Hit By L Train Dies

Subway service on the L train was interrupted once again on the morning of Jan. 4 when a male passenger was struck and killed at Union Square by an Eighth Ave. bound train at the height of the morning rush hour.

It was the third fatality on the L train tracks within a two week span. A man and woman were killed on the tracks near the Sixth Ave. stop on the L line on December 20.

Police said no criminality is suspected in the deaths of those two who have since been identified as a 44 year old man, James Miller from Garden City and a 63 year old woman, Joi Ehrlich, from Brooklyn. But how they both came to be on the tracks is still under investigation and sources told the NY Post that the two may have been riding between cars and one individual died while trying to prevent the other from committing suicide. There was also a stabbing that resulted in a fatality on September 30th near the Atlantic Ave. station in Brooklyn.

No identity of the latest victim was available but a fire department spokesman said that the victim refused medical attention when emergency responders first arrived and was later pronounced dead.

NYPD initially said it appeared to be accidental, but by Jan. 5 cops were saying the cause of the latest fatality is “under investigation” and suicide has apparently not been ruled out.

It is the latest in a string of troubling incidents on the L train and the Union Square hub. Back on Dec. 11, 66 year old accountant Joe Beck said he was on the platform that was unusually crowded for a Saturday morning around 10:45 am. When the doors opened, he said a male, much younger than himself, charged into him, causing Beck to fall backwards. He got up, went to search for a police officer to report the confrontation, when he realized his assailant was still following him. His assailant smacked Beck in the back of the head and ran out of the subway. “He looked like a homeless person,” said Beck. “He appeared very angry about something,” said Beck who said he was simply waiting for the train. “I was no threat to him.”

On Oct. 7 an unknown dark complexioned male wearing a light blue jacket and a blue baseball cap triggered a panic that caused all subway lines through the Union Square station to suspend service when he pepper sprayed a 77 year old male who had accidentally bumped into him. The victim was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries and eye redness. Police in that case released a surveillance video, but so far the suspect is still at large.

Stabbing Death on L Train

Things took a fatal turn on the L train on Sept 30th when Tommy Bailey, a brawny steamfitter and father of three, died after being stabbed in the neck after an argument with a homeless person on the L train near the Atlantic Ave stop in Brooklyn. Cops arrested 43 year old Alvin Charles Oct. 6 and charged him with murder. Charles had been freed under community supervision after being charged in an attempted murder in a case a year earlier. Prosecutors had sought to hold him and requested a $50,000 bail, but a judge set him free.