By Nina Mandell and Ben Fractenberg
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
EAST HARLEM — Subway service on the 4, 5 and 6 lines were delayed Friday afternoon after a man was killed at the 125th Street and Lexington Avenue stop.
The fire department and transit authority did not have details on how the man died, but witnesses on the scene said he may have thrown himself in front of a subway car.
“It was so messed up. It was so messed up,” said Bronx resident Flora Evans, 54. Evans, who sells water outside the station, said the man had been milling about all morning.
At 11 a.m., she saw him go down into the station. Witnesses on the downtown express platform said they saw the man put his hands together as if praying around noon and jump in front of an oncoming subway car.
The fire department arrived on the scene around 12:14 and pronounced the man dead. They would not confirm whether the death was a suicide.
In an e-mailed message to DNAinfo, the victim's sister, Gail Szala, described her brother as a Steelers fan who would always help anyone in need.
"He was my kids godfather, he was the funniest person you could imagine," she wrote. She also wrote her brother, who had attended Iona College, suffered from depression.
For now, she said, her family was grieving from the tragic loss of her brother.
"We are a small family. Just me my brother and my sister," she wrote. "We're devastated."
