Yesterday, police arrested a suspect in the death of Joshua Basin, who was fatally hit by an L Train after a verbal and physical altercation with a fellow straphanger spilled onto the subway tracks on Friday night. Charges are pending against 33-year-old homeless man Ryan Beauchamp, but one piece of erroneous information has been corrected: cops told the Village Voice that Beauchamp was NOT associated with Occupy Wall Street, despite early reports by the Post.
The Post wrote that Beauchamp "had been busted last October for being in Central Park after hours while protesting with the anti-Wall Street group." But an NYPD spokesman told the Voice that the arrest was "not OWS related." The Huffington Post explains that Beauchamp was arrested on October 8th at the park—and if it wasn't OWS-related, then he was likely one of the many homeless people who flocked to Zuccotti Park during the height of the protests in the fall. Beauchamp was also arrested once for sleeping in Central Park after it closed.
Witnesses said that Beauchamp was drunk and "looking for a fight" around 10 p.m. Friday, and police say that he initiated the physical altercation—he supposedly uttered, "It's showtime"—with Basin, a 20-year-old LaGuardia Community College student. The two men landed on the tracks—while Beauchamp apparently managed to get out and flee, Basin was struck by a Manhattan-bound L train, getting pinned between platform and the train. Basin was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.
Basin's mother Zena Basin told the Daily News that Beauchamp's arrest "is a gift. It’s a little bit of relief.” A former friend who attended The Hill School with Beauchamp said he showed signs of mental illness as a teenager: "He was just kind of an odd bird...He’s kind of gotten crazy over the years and I just kind of ignored him.”
