Just hours before an apparently innocent woman was pushed onto the subway tracks by a convicted felon, a group of protesters at a nearby Olive Garden were arrested for refusing to show proof of a COVID vaccine.
Videos posted to social media showed a group of about half a dozen protesters staging a sit-in at the Times Square Olive Garden on Friday night to protest New York City’s vaccine mandate for indoor dining.
The protesters reportedly remained inside the Olive Garden for two hours and refused to leave, which prompted the restaurant – which usually stays open until midnight – to close early, according to FOX News.
As they sat at the bar, they chanted ‘USA, USA,’ and sang the national anthem before police arrived on the scene.
The responding officers reportedly told the protesters they had to leave the restaurant or they would be arrested, and most of the dissidents left on their own accord, the New York Post reports.
The incident was over by 10.40pm, the NYPD told the Post, with videos posted to social media showing three men and one woman being led out of the restaurant in handcuffs.
As they left, one man in a black sweatshirt shouted, ‘This is the Civil Rights movement again,’ comparing the city’s vaccine mandate to segregation, while another man said: ‘They arrested me for trying to eat at an Olive Garden.’
People in the background could be heard calling it an unlawful arrest, with one member of the group playing F*** the Police by NWA on a loudspeaker as the protesters were taken into custody.
The identities of the three men and one woman who were arrested in the protest have not been released, but police told DailyMail.com they were released from custody and are expected to be charged with trespassing.
As he was lead away from the Times Square Olive Garden Friday night, one protester compared their sit-in with the Civil Rights movement, likening the vaccine mandate to segregation
Four people were arrested in the demonstration as people outside called it an unlawful arrest and played F*** the Police by NWA on loudspeaker
A group of about half a dozen protesters chanted ‘USA, USA’ inside the Olive Garden in Times Square as they staged a sit-in to protest the city’s vaccine mandate on Friday night
Just about 11 hours later, the NYPD was not able to stop a homeless man from shoving an Asian woman to her death in front of an oncoming subway train in Times Square.
Simon Martial, 61, is charged with second-degree murder after the Saturday morning incident at around 9:40 a.m. in Manhattan when a woman was killed at the southbound N, Q, R and W platform at West 42nd Street and Broadway.
Police have identified the woman as Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, who lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Martial has a history of mental illness and told reporters to ‘go f*** yourself’ as he was walked out of a Midtown precinct on Saturday night, declaring himself ‘God.’
‘Yeah because I’m God,’ he said when asked if he killed Go, the New York Post reported. ‘Yes I did. I’m God, I can do it.’
He then claimed: ‘She stole my f***ing jacket, that’s why.’
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the attack was ‘unprovoked’ and the victim ‘does not appear to have any interaction with the subject.’
The victim was remembered fondly on Saturday night as a ‘good soul.’
‘Everybody at Ruxton Towers liked her,’ an anonymous acquaintance who asked not to be named told DailyMail.com on the Upper West Side. ‘She was a good soul – a nice person. She didn’t deserve this.’
Go, of the Upper West Side, worked as a senior manager of strategy and operations for management and acquisitions at Deloitte Consulting, according to her LinkedIn. She graduated from University of California Los Angeles with a bachelor’s in economics and public policy, and earned her Master of Business Administration from New York University.
Martial reportedly shoved Go onto the tracks as a southbound R train approached the station in a seemingly random attack. He purportedly had approached a different woman, who was not Asian, but she moved away, police said.
Martial has a previous criminal history and served two years in state prison for attempted robbery before being released in August 2021, the New York Post reported, citing state records.
Sources told DailyMail.com that he has been arrested at least twice in the past for robbery. One incident was in August 2017 in Manhattan, when he was charged with first-degree robbery after allegedly entering a car, pretending to have a gun and stealing $43.
He was also arrested in July 1998 for allegedly simulating a gun in an attempt to rob a taxi driver, threatening to kill the driver. He was charged with two counts of robbery and criminal possession of a weapon at the time.
Sources told the Post that he has had three encounters with police as an emotionally disturbed person.
Martial’s sister, Josette Simon, was shocked and told the New York Post that her brother has a history of mental illness, but had once managed a parking lot and made ‘good money.’
‘He’s been on medication for over 20 years and in and out of mental hospitals in New York,’ she told the Post.
Simon Martial, 61, was arrested after he allegedly shoved Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, right, onto the subway tracks and killed her
Simon Martial, 61, is charged with second-degree murder after the Saturday morning incident. He is seen Saturday night leaving the Midtown precinct
Martial is accused of killing a woman, identified as Michelle Alyssa Go, at the southbound N, Q, R and W platform at West 42nd Street and Broadway
Martial has a criminal record of at least three arrests dating back to 1998. His sister told the New York Post that her brother has a history of mental illness
The MTA confirmed that Go had been struck by a train. Police found the victim lying on the tracks, unconscious with trauma to her body.
EMS personnel pronounced her dead at the scene, authorities said.
Go had reportedly been standing with two other women when she was pushed.
Delays were reported on the N, Q and R lines due to the incident.
The horrifying attack comes as crime in the subway and around the city continues to soar at the beginning of Mayor Eric Adams and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s first terms.
Bragg’s controversial decision to downgrade burglary, armed robbery and drug dealings from felonies to misdemeanors has drawn criticism, as it has led to many criminals being let back out on the streets.
Transit-related crimes are already up 81.5 percent compared to last year, according to NYPD data, and felony assaults are up 2 percent.
Overall, crime is up 32 percent from the same period in 2021.
Former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said newly-elected Mayor Eric Adams has his hands tied in terms of crime while Bragg’s office implements its woke policies.
Adams had promised a return to broken-windows policing after winning on a tough-on-crime approach campaign.
‘I don’t know how Mr. Adams is going to do that when the DA is effectively handcuffing the police,’ he said.
Several of New York City’s borough district attorneys also took aim at the soft-on-crime policies laid out this week by Bragg.
But the problems in New York City’s subway system has been ongoing, with officials in November recording 1,542 delays caused by ‘persons on the roadbed’ struck by trains – an increase of nearly 500 delays from the month before, according to the New York Post.
Go’s death also marks the second death on subway tracks so far this year.
A Good Samaritan was previously killed by a train after jumping onto the tracks to rescue the victim of a beating on New Year’s Day attack in the New York City subway.
New York’s crime rate continues to rise under new Mayor Eric Adams, who promised to be tough on crime, and ‘woke’ progressive DA Alvin Bragg
The incident took place at the Times Square Subway Station at West 42nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan
The unidentified woman was at the N, Q and R lines at the station waiting for her train, police said
Police on Wednesday apprehended two boys, ages 16 and 17 years old, charging them with murder, robbery and gang assault stemming from the death of Roland Hueston, NBC New York first reported.
The teens were allegedly among nearly a dozen young people – eight males and three females – who police say attacked a 38-year-old man on the B/D train platform at the Fordham Road station in the Bronx at around 2.45am on January 1.
The New York Daily News previously reported that the beating victim was drunk and got into an argument with the youths, who began punching and kicking him. At least one of the alleged attackers threatened the victim with a knife, according to witness accounts.
In the course of the attack, the drunken man fell onto the tracks as a D train was pulling into the station.
The incident took place within the 46th precinct, which has seen 17 felonious assaults from January 1 to January 9, a 325 percent increase compared to last year.
Earlier this week, police announced the arrest of another 16-year-old boy in connection with the deadly incident.
It is unknown at this time if they were being charged as adults. Their names have not been released as of Friday morning.
Roland Hueston, 36, has been identified as the Good Samaritan who was struck by a subway train and killed while trying to save a man who had been attacked by an alleged gang
Police on Wednesday arrested two boys, 16 and 17, who they say were among the 11 people (pictured above) who attacked and beat up a 38-year-old inside a Bronx subway station
The surge in violence has prompted one Bronx woman to tether herself firmly to a pole with a bike lock until her train arrives to avoid being pushed onto the tracks.
‘People want to push people into trains, it’s bad out here – that ain’t gonna happen to me,’ Wanda Vela told TikTok viewers in a viral video from November as she wrapped a bike lock around a pole on the platform and her midsection, securing it with a key.
‘I got my own chain and this what I do – I wait for the train like this and if the train don’t come, I stay right here. Ain’t nobody pushing me.’
She said she only unlocks the chain once her train pulls into the platform: ‘That’s it. Then I’m going on the train – boom,’ she said in the video as she unlocks the chain.
Now, MTA acting CEO Janno Lieber is creating a new Trespasser Task Force to find solutions for preventing people from jumping onto the tracks, according to CBS 2 News.
He has asked the taskforce to ‘collect data on when and how these incidents occur and start identifying solutions,’ the Post reports. In addition, Lieber has spoken to police about speeding up response times when individuals refuse to get off the tracks.
Lieber said he hopes the new task force will provide some initial recommendations this month.0
Simon Martial is just one of many repeat offenders who conducted violent crimes in New York City after skirting imprisonment
New York City has seen a rise in the number of violent crimes conducted by men who are repeat offenders, often being arrested for violent or alarming crimes in the past, but not held in prison while they waited for their court date.
Winston Glynn, 30
Winston Glynn: ‘Shot dead teen cashier at Burger King where he used to work’
Winston Glynn, a 30-year-old homeless man, was arrested over the cold-blooded murder of a 19-year-old Burger King cashier during a robbery in January.
He was free to kill after being released without bail for menacing another man with a screwdriver little more than a month before the murder.
Glynn was out on the street following his arrest on November 30 because his crime was ‘not bail eligible.’
Xavier Israel: ‘Beat up Good Samaritans’
Xavier Israel, 25
Xavier Israel, 25, who previously assaulted three other people in the past two weeks, had attacked an unidentified 59-year-old man who tried giving the homeless man his coat amid freezing temperatures. He has been charged with assault, robbery and grand larceny.
Israel had been arrested and released for his three previous attacks, one on January 2, when he allegedly beat up two 18-year-olds in Central Park, and then on Saturday when he attacked a 49-year-old woman who tried to offer him help.
He had been released both times on desk appearance tickets – meaning he had to appear in court on another date – since he had no prior convictions, according to NYPD records.
Craig Tamanaha, 49
Craig Tamanaha: ‘Set fire to Fox News Christmas tree’
Craig Tamanaha, 49, was arrested for setting fire to the Fox News Christmas tree on December 7. It was not a political attack – the homeless man targeted the tree at random, climbing it as Fox News staffers watched on then using a lighter to set it alight.
Tamanaha has a lengthy criminal record spanning at least 20 years and two states, and he was arrested in November for exposing himself outside the Ghislaine Maxwell trial in the city.
In 2002, the then-30-year-old Tamanaha was picked up in Abilene, Texas, on a public intoxication charge. Between 2017-2018, he was arrested on three separate occasions and charged with public intoxication, burglary and resisting arrest.
Tamanaha, who is described as unhoused and ’emotionally disturbed’, faces six misdemeanor charges, including arson, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and criminal trespassing.
Because all his charges are misdemeanors, bail could not be set for him and Tamanaha is back on the street without supervision or mental health support.
Agustin Garcia: Arrested in crime spree that began in Bronx
Agustin Garcia, 63
Agustin Garcia, 63, was arrested three times within 36 hours in a crime spree that began in the Bronx, where he allegedly stole a twelve-pack of Coors Light from a bodega on East 165th Street around 7.30 pm on November 21.
He was charged with petty larceny and turned back onto the street – a few hours later, he was back in handcuffs, according to the New York Police Department.
Garcia then robbed a subway rider at knifepoint at the Canal Street subway station around 3 am on November 22, telling her to ‘stay back’ when she pursued him, police said.
He was arrested, charged with felony robbery, and released again.
Just seven hours later, police arrested Garcia as he tried to climb up onto a platform from the tracks back at the West 145th Street/Lenox Avenue station. He fled into the tunnel after stealing another commuter’s iPhone.
After this third arrest he was charged with grand larceny and criminal trespass, and was sent to Bellevue Hospital for a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation.
Darrell Johnson: ‘Beat up two women on Upper West Side’
Darrell Johnson, 28,
Darrell Johnson, 28, was arrested on December 2 for allegedly beating two women on Manhattan’s Upper West Side just minutes apart, leaving one of the victims with a ‘disfiguring’ injury and sending both to the hospital.
The career criminal was out in the streets despite facing additional assault, attempted assault and harassment charges stemming from an incident in August 2020 during which he allegedly punched and stomped on a man in Harlem.
Johnson was charged with two misdemeanor counts of assault with intent to cause physical injury and multiple attempted assault and harassment charges for the December attacks.
Despite the slew of new and old charges against him, and his lengthy rap sheet listing at least 15 prior arrests, a Manhattan judge agreed to free Johnson without bail pending trial.
Johnson is due back in court on February 1, 2022.
Anthonia Egegbara: ‘Shoved innocent woman toward Times Square train tracks’
Anthonia Egegbara, 29
Anthonia Egegbara, 29, of Queens, was charged with attempted murder on October 7, over surveillance footage which showed her shoving an innocent woman toward the tracks as a train hurtled into Times Square station.
The unprovoked attack comes just three months after she was released without bail following an alleged assault on July 5 which left a 40-year-old woman suffering a black eye, broken nose and a knocked-out tooth.
Egegbara, who’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia, has a history of assault arrests, including at least seven times previously, according to NYPD records,
The three most recent incidents involved her allegedly kicking or biting other women on public transport.
Isus Thompson: ‘Randomly bashed cop in the head with backpack filled with metal safe’
Isus Thompson, 38
Isus Thompson, 38, randomly bashed Officer Kyo Sun Lee in the head with a backpack filled with a metal safe, a DVD player and a number of adult videos in the Bronx on November 14.
Unprompted, Thompson approached Lee, 30, on East 194th Street in The Bronx’s Fordham Manor neighborhood around 1.30am before assaulting him from behind.
Thompson, who was also found in possession of a metal box-cutter at the time of his arrest, was given three separate assault charges, weapon possession, harassment and resisting arrest, court records show.
One of his assault charges was listed as a felony, which grants judges discretion to set bail, but Thompson was instead set free on supervised release, meaning that he is just required to periodically check in with the court.
Thomas had been previously arrested for stabbing officer Demitrios Raptis with a knife in 2008.
Thompson pleaded guilty in 2008 to second-degree attempted murder for stabbing Raptis six times in the ride side of the stomach. Most of the blows were absorbed by Raptis’s bulletproof vest, but he also suffered stab wounds and still has a scar.
‘I could have died that night,’ Raptis told the New York Post. ‘I think the guy should be locked up, shouldn’t be let out. He could have killed this officer too. He should be behind bars.’
After the stabbing, Thompson was sentenced to five years in prison beginning in 2010 and was released two years later on parole, which expired in 2015, corrections records show. It is not clear whether the prosecutor in Thompson’s most recent offense was aware of his prior conviction.