Subway shove suspect Kamal Semrade arrested, charged with attempted murder after tip from Post reader
May 23, 2023
Kamal Semrade, 39, was charged with attempted murder and assault for the terrifying assault.
The man suspected of randomly shoving a woman into the side of a moving subway train in a terrifying attack over the weekend was arrested Tuesday morning — with the help of an eagle-eyed New York Post reader, police officials said.
Kamal Semrade, 39, was charged with attempted murder and assault in the chilling May 21 assault that left 35-year-old straphanger Emine Ozsoy in desperate need of spinal surgery, cops said.
He’s accused of pushing the victim’s head against a departing subway car at the Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street station on the Upper East Side around 6 a.m. Sunday.
Police on Sunday evening released surveillance images of the alleged attacker — who is believed to be homeless — showing him holding what appears to be a cup of coffee while standing or walking on the platform.
Cops then got lead on the suspect after a Post reader sent in a tip to NYPD Crime Stoppers saying he knew who the man was, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig.
Semrade had allegedly jumped a turnstile before he launched into what cops believe was an unprovoked attack, Essig said Tuesday. He noted police have not yet been able to speak to the victim, who was hospitalized and listed in critical condition Monday.
The woman was hospitalized in critical condition following the attack.
“She didn’t even see it coming,” Nancy Marrero, a Long Island City postal worker who witnessed the shocking incident, told The Post Monday.
“With open palms he just mushed her head — not her body — into the train. She just tumbled, just kept spinning because the train kept hitting her.”
The victim kept asking, “Am I going to die?” as she lay injured at the station — her face gashed to the bone, Marrero recalled.
“You could see the white inside, that’s how bad it was,” the postal worker said of the resulting gash that laced its way down the woman’s bloody face. “She said, ‘I don’t feel my arms. I feel like they’re broken.’
“She just kept asking me, ‘Am I going to die?’”
The attack occurred at the Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street station on the Upper East Side around 6 a.m. Sunday.
Authorities brought Ozsoy to Weill Cornell Medical Center, where doctors diagnosed her with a spinal fracture and Essig said she underwent an eight-hour surgery.
A GoFundMe page set up Monday to collect donations for her medical bills, however, noted she was showing signs of progress.
“Doctors initially informed us she had a slim chance of recovering movement below the neck. In just one day, she challenged that prognosis by moving her arms,” the page states.
“It is a huge step, but her road to recovery will be long and challenging. She’s a fighter and is already fighting to recover. She will get there, but she needs everyone’s help.”
The page adds: “Emine is a source of joy as a friend, colleague, and human being. She’s artistic, lighthearted, witty, and, above all, someone we consider family.”
Semrade has one prior run-in with cops for drinking alcohol in public.
When cops picked him up, he asked for an attorney once he was shown surveillance photos of him and the victim.
NYC Transit President Richard Davey lauded the NYPD for the arrest of the alleged attacker, saying it would “start delivering justice to the victim, who is in our thoughts at this terrible time.”
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