UPDATE: NAEEM DAVIS GREW UP ON STREETS, SUFFERED FROM FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME
NYPD has charged a homeless man named Naeem Davis, 30, with the “depraved indifference murder” of Queens man Ki-Suck Han, who was shoved in front of a New York subway train on Monday afternoon.
Davis was known in the area around 49th street for assisting street vendors in and around Rockefeller Center, as well as panhandling. He is known to have worked in the PAX eatery in Times Square. Prior to the argument with Han, Davis was seen talking to himself and harassing other commuters.
Davis has previous arrests in NYC and in Philadelphia, at least one charge has included “peddling”.
He is being held at the West 54th Street police station in Manhattan. Davis was due in court today anyway, charged with sleeping on a park bench. He also has an outstanding charge pending for smoking marijuana in a public place. He was apprehended at 1:30 p.m. yesterday without a struggle when he was spotted by a transit cop who was on a coffee break.
Davis had been described as having a beard and short dreadlocks, but when he was apprehended he appeared bald.
Ki Suck-Han, from Elmhurst, Queens, was in midtown to renew his passport when he got into an argument with Davis at the 49th street Q, N, R subway stop. A cell phone video shows that Davis saying to Ki:
Take your [expletive] over there, stand on line, wait for the R train.”
Police were able to track down Davis through a mixture of surveillance footage and a wanted campaign that offered a $12,000 reward.
After being arrested, NYPD say that Davis “implicated himself” in the killing as well as saying that Davis “stayed and watched” as the southbound Q train crushed Ki Suck-Han.
Police commissioner Ray Kelly said about the incident:
We have a witness that says there was a shoving or a push — depends on how you characterize it”