The man accused of pushing an elderly man to death down the stairs at a Chelsea subway station had just completed a mental evaluation hours before the attack, officials said, according to Fox News . Rhamell Burke, 32, made his first court appearance on Saturday, May 9.
He was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the May 7 attack.
police said Surveillance video At about 9:30 that night, Burke violently pushed a man down the stairs at the 18th Street subway station. Video shows the victim, 76-year-old Ross Falzone, flying into the air and hitting his head on the steps. Then he landed at the bottom of the stairs.
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Falzoni was rushed to Bellevue Hospital by paramedics. He succumbed to his injuries overnight.
Who is Rummel Burke? 5 things to know
Here are five things you need to know about Rummel Burke:
- Mayor Zoran Mamdani’s office said Burke was taken to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation just hours before Saturday’s attack. He was released about an hour later and then hospitalized, according to officials.
- Police sources also told FOX 5 NY that Burke has been arrested four times since February.
- According to the New York Post, police said Burke was “acting erratically” outside the NYPD’s 17th Precinct police station around 3:30 p.m. and waving a stick he grabbed from a dumpster before being taken to Bellevue.
- Burke was brought to Bellevue as an “emotionally disturbed person” and then moved through triage and into the hospital’s comprehensive psychiatric emergency program, police said. He was released around 4:40 p.m.
- Burke was in court Saturday. The judge ordered him held without bail. He will return to court on May 14
“This happens all the time,” a senior official said New York Police Department Police told the media that the tragedy was a “complete breakdown” of Mamdani’s response to mental illness.
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“We brought him in at 3:30 p.m. and he was released by 5 p.m. Meanwhile, if you or I walked into Bellevue with a headache, it would be eight hours before we were seen. The NYPD uses its involuntary eviction powers all the time. They just take painkillers and leave,” police said.
After the attack, Mamdani Calling for an investigation into NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue’s handling of Burke’s psychiatric evaluation.
“I am appalled by the killing of Ross Falzoni and the circumstances that led up to it,” the mayor said in a press release. “New Yorkers deserve answers.”
He added, “New Yorkers deserve answers. That’s why I’m directing NYC Health + Hospitals to immediately investigate what steps could have been taken to prevent this tragedy and to comprehensively review their psychiatric evaluation and discharge protocols.”
