Soon after an A train derailed at the 14th Street station on Sunday, police were able to swiftly apprehend a suspect who allegedly vandalized the tracks, all thanks to a witness who tackled the alleged culprit. That bystander, Rikien Wilder, was honored by the MTA on Wednesday and was deemed a "hero" and given a year's worth of free subway rides.
On Sunday morning, Wilder noticed a man on the northbound tracks putting objects in the subway roadbed. Wilder was able to remove some of the items before a train came into the station, and when one did arrive, it didn't derail. Wilder went to the station clerk to alert them to the issue, but then he spotted the same man putting more objects on the tracks, including a large metal rail plate which is used to secure tracks. That did derail a train, with part of its exterior peeled away by a subway columns.
Wilder, a Manhattan resident, chased the man and held him down until police arrived, spraining his wrist in the process. "It’s kind of hard holding someone for 15 whole minutes at full grip," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Police arrested Demetrius Harvard, 30, and charged him with reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, assault, and criminal trespass. Service was restored to the A/C/E lines by Monday morning.
The A train that derailed at the 14th Street station in Manhattan
“New Yorkers are known for putting others ahead of themselves, and that's exactly what Rikien Wilder did,” MTA chairman Pat Foye said "While we don't want members of the public placing themselves in danger by jumping onto the tracks, this brave Good Samaritan is a hero three times over—for removing debris, alerting personnel, and making sure the alleged perpetrator could not get away before police arrived. He truly exemplifies the best of New York."
In addition to the free subway (and bus) rides for a year, Wilder received an MTA "New York Tough" shirt. Explaining why he ran after harvard he said, "It kind of angered me a little bit because he seemed to get some joy out of wrecking the train... Watching him smile and watching the train wreck, the fire and the smoke, it was like being on, you know, a Hollywood set. My adrenaline kicked in and I was like, ‘I have to do something about it.'”
In 2007, the MTA gave Wesley Autrey a year of free subway and bus rides after his heroic deed: After a man suffered a seizure and fell into the downtown 1 tracks at the 137th Street station, Autrey jumped down in an attempt to lift him up, but with a train quickly approaching, Autrey covered the man's body with his own. The train operator had noticed the people in the tracks but by the time they were able to stop, a few train cars had passed over them. Thankfully, the track bed was deep enough that they were not seriously injured.
