By Nicholas Rizzi and Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Staff
HOWARD BEACH — Police arrested a suspect Wednesday in the fatal fight at the Bedford Avenue L station that ended with a 20-year-old man crushed by a subway.
Ryan Beauchamp, 33, was charged with attempted assault and harassment in connection with the attack on Joshua Basin, a Queens college student, at the Williamsburg subway station last Friday night, police said.
Basin was riding the L train about 10 p.m. last Friday when he got into a confrontation with his attacker, who witnesses said was drunk and "clearly looking for a fight."
The dispute spilled out onto the Bedford Avenue platform and the assailant pushed Basin down onto the tracks. The attacker scrambled back to safety, but Basin was crushed between an incoming train and the platform and was killed.
Basin's devastated friends and family gathered for a wake in Queens Wednesday afternoon, remembering him as a peacemaker who wrote anti-war poetry.
Zena Basin, Joshua's grieving mother, was on the verge of tears at her Howard Beach home Wednesday morning as she described her son's dream to help people as a psychologist.
"He was a peacemaker," she said. "He had a way of bringing people together…. He would go out of his way to make you feel good."
Joshua Basin was studying psychology at LaGuardia Community College and often wrote poetry, lyrics and raps with anti-war themes in his spare time, his mother said. Basin's father died before Basin turned 2, and Basin did lots of traveling as a child, visiting 18 countries, his mother said.
Zena Basin said Wednesday that she was relieved Beauchamp was in custody.
"At least part of that burden was lifted a little bit," Basin said. "You have no idea the relief I have."
Basin's wake was being held at the James Stephen Romanelli Funeral Home, 8901 Rockaway Boulevard from 2 to 9 p.m. Wednesday.
His funeral is scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Thursday at St. Helen's Roman Catholic Church, 15710 83rd Street, Howard Beach.
