Theodore Ellis has been charged with assault and reckless endangerment
A man has been arrested after being caught on CCTV randomly shoving a woman onto subway tracks in New York.
A Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) worker was said to have recognised the man from a wanted poster after video of the incident was circulated.
Theodore Ellis, 31, was taken into custody Tuesday at the Jackson Avenue station in Melrose – the same station where he allegedly shoved his 52-year-old victim onto the tracks around 4.45pm Sunday, police said, according to a report by the New York Post.
The Post said an MTA worker recognised Ellis and flagged down police, who charged him with assault and reckless endangerment.
The worker told police that Ellis was a regular illegal “swipe seller” at the station, sources told the newspaper.
When police interviewed Ellis, the newspaper said, he could not remember what the victim said to “piss him off” but claimed that he “didn’t show his own strength”.
The pair are believed to have had an argument in the run-up to the incident.
CCTV footage of the incident allegedly shows Ellis grabbing the woman by the shoulders and throwing her onto the tracks.
The woman was pulled back onto the platform by fellow commuters and taken to Lincoln Hospital with cuts to her head and arm. She remained there Tuesday.
The Post reported that Ellis has numerous past arrests dating back to 2006, including for aggravated harassment, narcotics, robbery, grand larceny, animal abuse, resisting arrest, obstruction, and assault.
Subway shoves or assaults accounted for 1.1 percent of reported “track intrusions” through the first four months of 2022, according to an MTA report.
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