Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Brandon Harris was sentenced to 15 years in prison for pushing an 82-year-old woman from the Flushing-Main Street subway platform onto the train tracks in October 2024. The woman suffered fractured vertebrae and other injuries in the fall. The defendant pleaded guilty this month to attempted murder.

District Attorney Katz said: “The safety of straphangers who rely on our mass transit system is not optional — it is essential. An 82-year-old woman was simply walking through a subway station when this defendant pushed her in between two train cars and onto the tracks. The victim suffered life-threatening injuries, requiring treatment for a laceration to her head and surgery to repair two fractured vertebrae. It is a miracle she survived. My office will continue to aggressively prosecute those who endanger our transit riders. The defendant will now serve 15 years in prison for his actions.”

Harris, 36, of Flushing, pleaded guilty earlier this month to attempted murder in the second degree in full satisfaction of the indictment against him. Queens Supreme Court Justice Toni Cimino sentenced the defendant today to 15 years in prison to be followed by five years of post-release supervision.

District Attorney Katz said that, according to the charges and investigation, on October 2, 2024, the 82-year-old victim and her husband exited a 7 train at the Flushing-Main Street station and were walking on the platform parallel to the train to exit the station.

As the couple was parallel to an open space between two train cars, Harris pushed the woman onto the tracks. He then left the platform and approached an NYPD officer in the station to say someone “got knocked” on the train.

The victim was taken to a hospital for treatment of a laceration to her head and surgery to repair two fractured vertebrae.

Officers returned to the station later that day on a report of an emotionally disturbed person and Harris was transported to a local hospital. He was wearing the same sandals and shorts he had on during the incident and was later identified as the person who pushed the victim onto the tracks.

Assistant District Attorney Ryan Licciardello of the District Attorney’s Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Michael Whitney, Bureau Chief, and Roni Piplani and Timothy Regan, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Shawn Clark.