Thursday, December 06, 2012
NY subway victim's daughter: 'What's done is done'
AP
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NEW YORK (AP) — The daughter of a man pushed in front of a subway train and photographed a split-second before his death said Wednesday after a suspect was arrested that it "would have been great" if someone had helped her father up but "what's done is done."

A freelance photographer for the New York Post was waiting for a train Monday afternoon when he said he saw a man approach 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han at a Times Square area station, get into an altercation with him and push him into the train's path.

Naeem Davis, 30, was arraigned Wednesday night on a second-degree murder charge and ordered held without bail. He is due back in court on Dec. 11.

Davis, who police said was homeless, had been taken into custody for questioning Tuesday after security video showed a man fitting the suspect's description working with street vendors near Rockefeller Center. Police said Davis made statements implicating himself in Han's death.

He has several prior arrests in New York and Pennsylvania on mostly minor charges including drug possession.

Han's only child, 20-year-old Ashley, said at a news conference Wednesday that her father was always willing to help someone. But when asked about why no one helped him up, she said: "What's done is done."

"The thought of someone helping him up in a matter of seconds would have been great," she said.

Ashley stood with her mother, Serim Han, inside their Presbyterian church in Queens. The family came to the U.S. from Korea about 25 years ago. They said Han was unemployed and had been looking for work. Their pastor said the family was so upset by a front-page photo of Han in the Post that they had to stay with him for comfort.

"I just wish I had one last chance to tell my dad how much I love him," Ashley Han said.

The Post photo in Tuesday's edition showed Ki-Suck Han with his head turned toward the train, his arms reaching up but unable to climb off the tracks in time.

The photographer, R. Umar Abbasi, told NBC's "Today" show Wednesday that he was trying to alert the motorman to what was going on by flashing his camera.

He said he was shocked that people nearer to the victim didn't try to help in the 22 seconds before the train struck.

"It took me a second to figure out what was happening ... I saw the lights in the distance. My mind was to alert the train," Abbasi said.

"The people who were standing close to him ... they could have moved and grabbed him and pulled him up. No one made an effort," he added.

In a written account Abbasi gave the Post, he said a crowd took videos and snapped photos on their cellphones after Han was pulled, limp, onto the platform. He said he shoved them back as a doctor and another man tried to resuscitate the victim, but Han died in front of them. Continued...

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