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Award-winning artist 'instantly paralyzed' after being pushed into moving train in NYC subway attack
Image courtesy NBC News 4 New York (screenshot)

Award-winning artist 'instantly paralyzed' after being pushed into moving train in NYC subway attack

A 35-year-old woman was instantly paralyzed after being pushed into a moving train in the New York City subway system in an apparent unprovoked attack, Yahoo News

A prosecutor described the incident as “completely unprovoked" when Turkish-born Emine Yilmaz Ozsoy was pushed into a subway train that was leaving the station at high speed.

Kamal Semrade, 39, was charged with a series of crimes including second-degree attempted murder for the attack at the Lexington Avenue and East 63rd Street station at 6:05 a.m..

Semrade “grabbed her head with both his hands and shoved her with all his force into the moving subway car,” said Assistant District Attorney Carolyn McGuigan during the arraignment. The assistant district attorney also said that Ozsoy was "instantly paralyzed" and remains in critical condition with a high risk of death or stroke, according to court documents.

The 35-year-old victim suffered a cervical spine fracture, a scalp laceration, and other injuries, according to the report.

A witness told NBC 4 New York that she watched the horror unfold, which began with Semrade walking behind the woman. "I just see him walk up beside her to her left side and with palms open just shove her head onto the train as it moved," said Nancy Marrero.

"He just took both hands, not at her body, aimed specifically at her head like he wanted the head to hit. So when he shoved her into it, so her head hit and her body like tumbling in a circle and she just dropped onto the platform," the witness explained.

Marrero cared for the victim after the man fled the scene and told reporters "When [the victim] landed, because she tumbled, she landed on her stomach with her hand [and] arm twisted, and she said, 'I have no feeling to my arm.'"

The witness stated that the victim had her head split from her forehead and eyebrow area "all the way to the back" of her head. She even tried to unlock Ozsoy's phone for her using facial recognition, but the verification failed because of the victim's blood-covered face.

Semrade's lawyer, a Legal Aid Society attorney named Rebecca Heinsen, remarked that the accused has never been in legal trouble prior to the incident.

"At this current time, we ask the public to refrain from drawing hasty conclusions based on sensationalized reporting in the press," she said in an email to NBC News.

The man is to remain in custody until a May 26, 2023, court date.

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