New York police detain man in subway shoving death

New York City police have apprehended a 34-year-old man who is a person of interest in the death of a man who was shoved into the path of a subway train Sunday.

Kevin Darden is a person of interest in the death of 61-year-old Bronx resident Wai Kuen Kwok, who was pushed in front of a train as he stood on the platform with his wife, an NYPD statement said.

A police spokesman told the Los Angeles Times that Darden was found in the Bronx about 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Darden also is considered a suspect in a Nov. 6 attack at a Manhattan subway station, police said. In that attack, a 51-year-old man was shoved to the ground, causing minor injuries.

Darden was arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge seven days before Kwok’s death, according to a city criminal records search. Darden was held in lieu of $1,000 bond, but released on his own recognizance on Nov. 14, two days before the subway attack.

An NYPD official told The Times the Kevin Darden found in a court records search is the same man considered a person of interest in Kwok’s death.

On Monday, police released video of a balding man boarding a bus outside the train station shortly after Kwok was shoved. The surveillance footage also shows the man smoking a cigarette in a market near the area, but police have not described the man as a suspect in Kwok’s death.

Police are offering a $2,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in Kwok’s death. His death marks the third time someone has been shoved into the path of a subway train in the last three years.

Though attacks are rare, 53 people died after falling onto subway tracks or climbing down to retrieve items they dropped in the path of trains last year, according to records kept by the city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

New York City’s subway stations are lined with signs warning people against the dangers of standing too close to the tracks, and yellow lines mark nearly each platform, suggesting a safe distance to stand from the edge.

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