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Homeless, drunk Guyanese charged with Harlem’s subway attack
Harlem, US (New York Daily News) – A grandfather critically injured in an attack by a homeless drunk on a Harlem subway platform is a churchgoing family man targeted for no apparent reason, cops and friends said Saturday.
Rudralall Baldeo, 57, was charged Saturday with attempted murder and felony assault, police said.
Shou Kuan Lin, 72, remained unconscious with a skull fracture and broken collarbone 24 hours after he was shoved to the A train’s tracks as his wife watched helplessly, cops said.
“The whole family is extremely upset,” said the Chinese immigrant’s red-eyed daughter-in-law as her husband kept a bedside vigil with his sister and mother at St. Luke’s Hospital.
Lin, a retired garment factory worker, fought for his life as cops on Saturday charged his white-bearded assailant with attempted murder and felony assault in the chilling Friday attack.
Suspect Rudralall Baldeo, 57, a Guyanese, had no address and no previous arrests by the NYPD, cops said.
“He’s a homeless person who pushed a stranger onto the subway tracks with no prior provocation,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Christopher Lin said as Baldeo was ordered held without bail late Saturday. “The probability of death in this case is high.”
Defense attorney Edda Ness said prosecutors “don’t actually have a witness who saw (Baldeo) push the victim onto the tracks” and that the homeless man does have “community contacts” that include two sons and a wife living in the city.
Police said Lin’s stunned wife pointed Baldeo out to cops, who arrested the alleged attacker on the platform.
Lin and his wife, Yumei Li Lin, were taking the subway from Chinatown to their Amsterdam Ave. home when they apparently stopped to switch trains at the 145th St. and St. Nicholas Ave. station.
As the couple stood on the uptown platform, Baldeo slammed into Lin — sending the elderly man falling to the tracks below, cops said.
Good Samaritans rescued Lin from the trough before the train arrived.
“He is not out of danger,” said Eliyah Shira, pastor of the couple’s Chinatown church. “He is in the process of recovering, but he’s not really out of danger.”
Police sources said Baldeo professed his innocence and claimed Lin fell onto the tracks as he walked by. Baldeo even said “excuse me” as he passed Lin, the source said.
A small group of congregants from the Church of Grace joined Lin’s family in prayer at the hospital.
Lin‘s daughter-in-law said her relatives were too upset Saturday to discuss the case.
In addition to his two adult children, Lin is the grandfather of a young girl, friends said.
“They’re really friendly, nice people,” said Xinen Huang, 33, whose father was once the Lin family’s landlord in Brooklyn.
“I’m so sorry to hear what happened,” he told the Daily News. “He has a good personality.”
The family lived in Brooklyn for about a decade before moving out last year, said Huang. Lin is originally from the Fujian province on the southeast coastal region of China.
Lin is the sixth person to be shoved or thrown onto city subway tracks since the start of 2012, according to a count by The News. The number includes the deaths of Ki-Suk Han, 58, and Sunando Sen, 46, who were both hit by trains in December 2012 after being assaulted by unhinged straphangers.
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