The mayor of New York on Tuesday evening joined hundreds of people for a vigil to remember a Deloitte executive pushed under a subway trai...
The mayor of New York on Tuesday evening joined hundreds of people for a vigil to remember a Deloitte executive pushed under a subway train on Saturday - hours after admitting that he himself is concerned for his safety on the trains.
Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer, was elected on a promise to make the city safer, but has seen crime rise 65 percent in just the first two weeks since he took office.
On Tuesday night, he paid tribute to Michelle Alyssa Go, a 40-year-old who was shoved into the path of an oncoming train in Times Square, and said the violence has to stop.
'Right here in Times Square, I served as a police officer, and spent many days in the early '80s wearing a blue uniform as a police officer - a transit police officer, watching where we were,' he told the crowd.
'Swearing and committed that we would never go back.'
Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, is seen on Tuesday night at a vigil for Michelle Alyssa Go, who was pushed under a subway train on Saturday by a mentally ill homeless man
Go, 40, is beamed on to the side of Times Square during Tuesday night's vigil
Go's friends and colleagues and hundreds of well-wishers gathered in Times Square to pay their respects
Tributes to the 40-year-old 'fearless' Deloitte executive, who grew up in San Francisco, were on display on Tuesday night
The vigil was organized by Asians Fighting Injustice, and founder Eric Wei told the New York Post the group is demanding that City Hall set up an Asian-American task force to address ongoing concerns over anti-Asian violence.
Anti-Asian crime was up 361 percent in 2021 compared to 2020, with 129 anti-Asian crimes, according to the NYPD - and 183 anti-Semitic crimes.
A mentally ill homeless man, who was well known to police, has been arrested for shoving Go.
It is unknown if her racial background was a factor in the 9:40am attack on Saturday, but police suggested it was random.
Simon Martial, 61 - who admitted to killing her - ranted publicly after his arrest that he was God, and was allowed to do it.
Adams on Sunday sparked widespread anger by seeming to downplay the concerns of subway riders.
'New Yorkers are safe on the subway system,' he said.
'I think it's about 1.7 percent of the crimes in New York City that occur on the subway system.
'Think about that for a moment. What we must do is remove the perception of fear.'
On Tuesday, before the vigil, he backtracked and admitted there was a problem - reversing his previous stance.
'Day One, January 1, when I took the train, I saw the homelessness, the yelling, the screaming early in the morning, crimes right outside the platform,' he said, during an in-person City Hall press briefing.
'We know we have a job to do — and we're going to do both.
'We're going to drive down crime, and we're going to make sure New Yorkers feel safe in our subway system.
'And they don't feel that way now. I don't feel that way when I take the train every day, or when I'm moving throughout our transportation system.'
Adams spoke hours after three women waiting for the downtown 6 train at the 23rd Street station at around 7am told how they were forced to stay behind the turnstiles before running onto their train at the last minute when it arrived.
Protesters calling for greater protection for Asian Americans gathered in Times Square after Go's murder
Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, challenged Adams for the mayor's job. He attended Tuesday's vigil with his colleagues
Go was remembered by her co-workers and friends as someone who loved to travel, and loved life
Adams admitted on Tuesday that he did not feel safe on the subway, despite having said on Sunday that there was merely the 'perception of fear'
Subway riders are seen on Tuesday morning waiting nervously outside behind the turnstiles at the 23rd Street Station in Manhattan, as a screaming man paced the platform
The man was behind the turnstiles (pictured), a rider told DailyMail.com, and three women riders had to rush through the terminals to get on the train when it arrived
Jennifer Smith, 29, who has lived in the area for two years and takes the downtown 6 train from 23rd Street regularly to her media job, said when she arrived, she noticed 'two to three other women standing behind the turnstiles.'
'There was also a six-foot man who'd gone through the turnstiles who was hovering near the exit door near us.
'It was a horrible atmosphere and there wasn't a cop or MTA worker in sight,' she told DailyMail.com on Tuesday.
'When the train did arrive, we all raced through,' she said.
'He was still pacing, I'm not sure if he even got on the train.
'There's always the worry that you'll be followed onto the carriage and then you're stuck there, potentially in a dangerous situation.'
Transit crimes have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic, with many commuters becoming increasingly worried about being thrown on the tracks as more horror stories arise.
The number of felony assaults has also increased by 7.7 percent, and overall, crime is up 35 percent from the same period in 2021, according to the city's crime stats.
Despite the MTA Chairman Janno Lieber commending the mayor for 'getting it,' not all New Yorkers are feeling the same way.
'That station has become a lot more dangerous in the last six months,' Smith told DailyMail.com.
'Before the pandemic, it was always fine and there were enough people around that you felt safe.
'Now, every other day it's just you and either a homeless person or someone with clear mental illness.'
Transit crimes already up more than 65 per cent in 2022 as more commuter face dangerous situations on their commute
Overall crime is up 35 percent in the Big Apple
From January through December 12, 2021, passengers were pushed onto the tracks 27 times, up from 25 during the same period in 2020, according to the NYPD.
On Tuesday night, Go's friends and well wishers gathered in Times Square in her honor.
'She loved New York. We would talk about it in the pandemic that we would rather be nowhere else,' said Kim Garnett, one of Go's friends and coworkers at Deloitte.
Garnett told The New York Post: 'She loved Central Park. She loved living on the Upper West Side.
'I was talking to one of my friends yesterday about what I would say about Michelle.
'The first thing that came to mind was, wow, she hated attention. And right now she's listening and saying, 'Is this reality. Did this happen in Times Square?' '
Garnett said she had texted Go the day her death, just about 'mundane things' such as the weather.
'One of the things that still is hard for me to do is refer to her in the past tense,' Garnett said.
'She traveled and took chances, and she showed me what it means to live life to the fullest.'
Another friend, Rakesh Duggal, remembered Go as a travel-enthusiast who always prepared an agenda ahead of her trips.
'She loved to travel. We must have done a dozen trips together,' Duggal said.
'Wherever we went, Michelle always had a plan and it was often accompanied by a spreadsheet and all of the reservations.'
Duggal said that, at work, Go thrived on challenges.
'She was a glass ceiling breaker. No challenge was too big or scary for her. She always wanted to work on the biggest and most challenging things,' said Duggal.
Jae McGuire, 40, of Woodside, Queens, called Go's death 'senseless violence.
'She didn't even see her attacker. She's standing there waiting for the train like me and what I do every day,' McGuire said.
'This could happen to me or any of my friends.'
A vigil was also being held on Tuesday night in San Francisco, where Go grew up.
Michelle Alyssa Go is seen volunteering for the New York Junior League (NYJL) - an organization of women created 'to strengthen the health and well-being' of children and other women in the community
Go (center) is seen with her family. On Monday they released a statement telling of their shock and sadness at her death
Martial, who has a lengthy rap sheet, was arrested later that day on a charge of second-degree murder for pushing Go.
He also justified his alleged killing by calling himself 'God,' and saying he 'can do it.'
'Yes, because I'm God. Yes, I did it. I'm God. I can do it,' Martial told reporters.
Martial is reportedly homeless and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
His sister, Josette Simon, from Georgia, argued that her brother belonged in a mental health facility and should have been kept off the streets.
Police have said it is unclear where Go was heading at the time of her death.
Go was Asian American, but police officials said that while the investigation was ongoing, they did not immediately believe the attack was motivated by her race.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the attack was 'unprovoked' and the victim did not 'appear to have any interaction with the subject.'
Transit crimes have been rising throughout the pandemic with several people being thrown onto the subway tracks. A woman was killed on Saturday after a homeless person threw her on the tracks at the Times Square Subway Station at West 42nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan (pictured: police on scene in Times Square)
A witness told police that Martial had confronted her just minutes before he shoved Go to her death, Assistant Chief Jason Wilcox told reporters on Saturday.
'He approaches her and he gets in her space. She gets very, very alarmed,' Wilcox said.
'She tries to move away from him and he gets close to her, and she feels that he was about to physically push her onto the train.
Simon Martial, 61, (pictured) was arrested on Saturday on a charge of second-degree murder for allegedly pushing Go
'As she's walking away she witnesses the crime where he pushes our other victim in front of the train.'
Wilcox said that police have documented 'three emotionally disturbed encounters' with Martial in the past.
Maria Coste-Weber said she she saw Martial approaching the tracks with his arms in front of him.
'He started running with both of his hands in front of him, like, tackling,' Coste-Weber told The New York Times.
'But it was so fast, nobody realized what was going on before it was too late.'
Coste-Weber added: 'She (Go) had her back to this crazy person. She never saw anything.'
Go graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and went on to receive her master's in finance from New York University's Stern School of Business.
She had also volunteered for the New York Junior League (NYJL) for the past decade, according to the New York Post.
The NYJL is an organization of women created 'to strengthen the health and well-being' of children and other women in the community
Go worked on a committee that had 'the goal of empowering adults and young adults on the path to independent success,' a spokesman told The New York Post.
'Michelle's focus populations were seniors, recovering homeless, immigrants and under-resourced and academically struggling elementary and middle school kids and their parents,' the spokesperson said.
The family of Go has released a statement expressing 'shock' at their loss.
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 statement, shared on Twitter on Monday, said: 'We are in a state of shock and grieving the loss of our daughter, sister and friend.
'We hope Michelle will be remembered for how she lived and not just how she died.
'She was a beautiful, brilliant, kind and intelligent woman, who loved her family and friends, loved to travel the world and to help others.
'Her life was taken too soon in a senseless act of violence, and we pray that she gets the justice she deserves. Thank you for your condolences.'
The horrifying attack comes as crimes in the subway and around the city continues to soar at the beginning of 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.
Former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Adams has his hands tied in terms of crime while Bragg's office implements its woke policies.
Rape, robbery, and grand larceny are also up in the Big Apple at 15.8, 25.1, and 61.7 percents, respectively.
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