A 19-year-old man from Westchester County faces up to 25 years in prison for allegedly shoving a man onto the subway tracks at the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station in December, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Tuesday.
Andrew Pashinin, of Harrison, New York, was arraigned Feb. 25 before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Herbert Moses on charges second-degree attempted murder, first-degree attempted assault, reckless endangerment, assault, menacing, and criminal possession of a weapon.
According to prosecutors, on Dec. 7, 2024, Panshin allegedly pulled a knife and approached the 33-year-old victim, on the southbound D platform. He then put the knife away, took out a camera, and began recording the man. The two engaged in a verbal dispute, and the victim walked away.
Pashinin allegedly followed the man and pushed him from behind onto the tracks. The victim was able to climb back onto the platform seconds before a train entered the station, suffering minor injuries.
The NYPD Warrant Squad arrested Pashinin at his mother’s house in Yonkers on Jan. 21 after police identified him through a wanted flyer. He was ordered held without bail pending a psychiatric evaluation and is scheduled to return to court on April 2.
During Pashinin’s perp walk in Coney Island last month, he told reporters that the victim had provoked him.
“He pushed me and said mean things to me before I arrived at the station,” Pashinin said. “He said he was going to beat my ass and that I was a little kid.”
Both the NYPD and the Brooklyn DA’s office said Pashinin’s account was false and that he was the alleged aggressor.
“This was a terrifying attack that is the nightmare of every New Yorker who uses the subway,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “Luckily, the victim was able to lift himself from the tracks moments before a subway train entered the station. We will now seek to hold this defendant accountable for his alleged, horrifying actions.”
The arraignment comes amid a worrying trend of subway shoving incidents, including a recent case in which a 23-year-old woman was pushed onto the tracks in Manhattan. In response to safety concerns, the MTA said last year it would be installing platform barriers at select stations as part of a pilot program.
Year-to-date, transit crime is down more than 26% across the five boroughs, police statistics show – though 264 incidents have been reported on the city’s buses and subways so far this year.
