MANHATTAN — James Hadden was standing on a Greenwich Village subway platform checking his email when he felt a stranger's hand on his back that suddenly sent him plunging headlong toward the subway tracks below.
“I landed really hard on my side," Hadden told DNAinfo New York's “On the Inside” as he recounted the frightening early morning incident at the West 4th Street station on Feb. 12.
"The first thing I did was look up to see if a train was coming to not get hit,” he said. “Then I looked around to see if there were any rats."
Hadden was living out every straphanger's worst nightmare — one moment he was minding his own business at the end of an evening out with friends, the next second he was lying on a subway roadbed fearing for his life.
"I could not believe that this was happening to me, and that this could be my end," he said.
Last Wednesday, the NYPD released a photo of the man they believe shoved Hadden onto the tracks and are seeking the public's assistance in identifying him.
Hadden recalled that he was waiting for a northbound A-train at 3 a.m. on a virtually deserted platform. There was only a couple standing nearby, arguing loudly with one another.
Pretending to ignore their squabbling, the part-time U.S. postal worker started looking at his phone.
“I was just minding my own business, checking messages and then I felt them walking behind me and suddenly I felt a hand just push and fling me onto the tracks," he said.
“They did not look like they would do something like that,” he said. “It caught me off guard.”
Hadden said he found himself “on the ground” looking up and the couple “were still arguing with one another."
He looked up in amazement.
"I told them I could not believe you pushed me and you are still arguing,” he said.
Fighting through the pain in his arms and legs, he struggled to his feet, telling the couple, "Help me up instead of acting crazy," he said.
But his pusher only glowered down at him and launched into a expletive-laced rant that he could not understand. The woman, however, was apologetic.
“She was saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I apologize for us,’ but he was just cursing at me,” Hadden said.
Unable to hoist himself up onto the platform, Hadden spied a stairway at the end of the platform leading up from the roadbed.
He hobbled toward it, hoping a train would not pull into the station. He breathed a huge sigh of relief when he was finally back on the platform.
By then, the couple was gone.
A month later, Hadden continues to visit doctors caring for his contusions and bruises, but fortunately no bones were broken.
The random incident, however, has permanently unnerved him. Still, he says he will not let it deter him from using the subways.
“I am not going to be afraid, but I still cannot believe that someone would do this," he said.
Police are now looking for the pusher, who they described as a man in his 40s, about 5-foot-10 or 11, between 170 and 180 pounds. They were able to obtain a photo of him from video surveillance in the station. He was last seen wearing a black suit and a black coat, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD Crimestoppers Unit at 1800-577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
