Moments before 8:45 a.m. on Nov. 16, Wai Kuen Kwok, a 61-year-old Chinese immigrant, was standing with his wife and waiting for a downtown train at a Bronx subway station on E. 167 St. to board the train to Manhattan's Chinatown for breakfast and grocery shopping, according to New York Police Department. However, they never made it to their destination.

According to The New York Times, an unknown assailant shoved the couple off the platform and into the path of an oncoming southbound D train, with Kwok vanishing beneath the screeching locomotive.

According to a report in the New York Post, the train's operator slammed on the brakes, however the lead subway car struck Kwok while his body was still in midair. He was killed on impact in an attack that was unprovoked.

Police agree that this was no accident, stating a Metropolitan Transportation Authority worker on the southbound D train told detectives that Kwok's body "suddenly flew in front of the train."

Law enforcement say Kwok's wife, 59, was taken to the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center to be treated for emotional trauma and was not reported physically injured by the 44th Precinct station house, who interviewed the Cantonese-speaking victim with the assistance of family members later that afternoon.

The New York Times reports that according to a spokesman for the MTA, prior to the incident, 49 people had been struck and killed by subway trains in 2014; this includes accidental falls and suicides.

However, Kwok's murder was the first since Dec. 2012, when a commuter was pushed into an oncoming 7 train in Queens with intent to kill by another passenger. In that incident, Erika Menendez was convicted of a hate crime and charged with murder in the death of an immigrant of South Asian decent from Calcutta, India.

While ABC reports that over the course of the last few years, at least three incidents have stemmed from travelers being pushed onto subway tracks; most recently, a man was pushed on to the tracks at a Manhattan subway station and was killed upon being unable to get back on the platform in April 2013.

Late Sunday evening, NYPD released a surveillance video of the suspect whom officers believe lives in the purlieu of the 167th Street Station. The video shows the suspect exiting the station, riding the BX35 local bus and smoking a cigarette.

Posters of the suspect have also been printed, and police officers are asking locals to come forth with any information on the suspect.

Related