{"id":3703,"date":"2026-03-13T07:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T03:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/duye.live\/?p=3703"},"modified":"2026-03-13T07:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T03:19:15","slug":"hero-straphanger-saved-83-year-old-vet-after-nyc-subway-shoves-what-can-you-say-about-new-yorkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/duye.live\/?p=3703","title":{"rendered":"Hero straphanger saved 83-year-old vet after NYC subway shoves: \u2018What can you say about New Yorkers?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Big Apple straphanger hero pulled an 83-year-old Air Force vet to safety with only seconds to spare after both were shoved onto Upper East Side<\/a> subway tracks, allegedly by an illegal immigrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jhon Pena, 30, ignored his own injuries and helped pull grandfather Richard Williams back onto the platform just moments before a train rolled into the station, an act of heroism that left the older man\u2019s daughters eternally grateful \u2014 even though it may not be enough to save her dad\u2019s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe helped my dad get out of there,\u201d Debbie Williams said of Pena. \u201cThe first guy that got pushed is the guy who assisted my father off the tracks with everybody else. What can you say about New Yorkers?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tragically, she told The Post her dad, who just celebrated his 55th wedding anniversary, may not make it \u2014 prosecutors said Wednesday that Williams is \u201ccurrently brain dead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy father is not doing well at all,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is no change \u2014 It does not look promising.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both men were at the Lexington Avenue-63rd Street station in Manhattan shortly before noon Sunday when prosecutors said illegal Honduran immigrant Bairon Hernandez<\/a>, 34, walked up and pushed them onto the tracks in a shocking and unprovoked attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chilling cellphone footage of the attack apparently shot by Pena from the train tracks shows the aftermath of the attack, with the suspect casually strolling along the platform after pushing both men onto the subway bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bystander is seen in the video grabbing the thug and briefly scuffling with him before he turns to check on the two injured straphangers, as the attacker \u2014 alleged to be Hernandez \u2014 is seen walking away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stranger then is seen extending his hand to the two victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrible, it\u2019s hit him very hard,\u201d Pena\u2019s mother, Claudia Pena, said of her son. \u201cHe tells me it was very distressing getting [Williams] out of there and not doing anything more for him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pena suffered shoulder and knee injuries and was taken to Jamaica Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams, a retired Air Force jet mechanic who later founded a bulletproof material business suffered the more serious injuries and remained at the ICU at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
A portrait of Richard Williams as a young man in military uniform with a fur collar and hat, smiling at the camera.Obtained by NYPost<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another of the vet\u2019s three daughters, Diane Williams, who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, told The Post that the incident has been hardest on her elderly stepmother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have no idea how she is going to survive this,\u201d she said. \u201cRight now, she is just lost. She is completely lost. She keeps talking to my dad and telling him, \u2018C\u2019mon, wake up. Wake up, sweetheart.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe can\u2019t digest this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said her father \u201cloved Manhattan,\u201d and spoke to him just before he left his home on Roosevelt Island to head into the Big Apple, telling her, \u2018Honey, I\u2019m going to go now. I\u2019m going into the city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sisters said Richard Williams had beaten prostate cancers just six months ago after being diagnosed about five years earlier, and had found a new lease on life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bairon<\/a>
Bairon Hernandez, 34, is charged with assault for the unprovoked Sunday subway shoves.William Miller<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was out shopping,\u201d Debbie Williams said. \u201cHe was out, going on the subway. He\u2019s fully independent. He battled cancer, he got through that\u2026. He was living his best life and then this had to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine why anybody would consider pushing a person,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s beyond me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She praised Pena and the other bystanders who came to her dad\u2019s aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re phenomenal,\u201d she added. \u201cUntil that son of a bitch that came over here and just decided to start tearing up the subway. There are no words to say how I feel about him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
NYPD surveillance image of Barion Hernandez following the Sunday afternoon subway shove incident.DCPI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cops picked Hernandez up at a Brooklyn homeless shelter about 5 a.m. Tuesday and charged him with felony assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was arraigned Wednesday evening and ordered held on $100,000 cash bail or a $300,000 bond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors said Hernandez was in the country illegally, with a prior conviction in New Jersey for entering the US illegally, and a Texas conviction for re-entering illegally.90<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Post a comment.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense attorney Michael Papson said Hernandez \u201cvehemently denies\u201d the allegations, but Judge Janice Chen said the accused shover posed a \u201cgreat risk\u201d of fleeing and set bail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams\u2019 daughters he should be held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think he should suffer like the rest of us are suffering,\u201d Diane Williams said. \u201cHe just randomly did it, just push people off the f\u2013king subway tracks. I hope he lives with his conscience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want him to live and live with the consequences he did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional reporting by Fenix Suriel and Georgett Roberts<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Big Apple straphanger hero pulled an 83-year-old Air Force vet to safety with only seconds to spare after both were shoved onto Upper East Side subway tracks, allegedly by an illegal … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-3703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/duye.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/duye.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/duye.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duye.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duye.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/duye.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3704,"href":"https:\/\/duye.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3703\/revisions\/3704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/duye.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duye.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duye.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}