The off-duty NYPD cop sucker-punched and shoved onto the tracks during a random attack by a homeless man at an East Village subway station was nearly struck by an oncoming train, prosecutors said Wednesday.
After the 24-year-old officer landed on the tracks at the Third Ave. station at E. 14th St. during the Tuesday night attack, he could see “the lights of a train approaching the station,” according to court documents.
The cop, with the help of a good Samaritan, managed to get back onto the platform before the train entered the station, officials said.
The close call was revealed Wednesday night as a Manhattan Criminal Court judge ordered accused subway attacker Aaron Walker held without bail during a brief arraignment hearing.
Aaron Walker is arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Sept. 24, 2025, after he was arrested for allegedly shoving an NYPD officer onto the subway tracks at an L train station in Manhattan’s East Village. (Curtis Means for DailyMail/POOL)
The judge also ordered a psychological exam for Walker, who is facing attempted murder, assault and attempted assault charges for the attack.
Walker has an extensive criminal record, including four arrests in the last seven weeks, officials said.
The cop, a two-year veteran of the NYPD, was returning home after working a police detail at the United Nations General Assembly when he was attacked around 7:35 p.m., cops said.
Walker, 28, allegedly stormed up to the officer, who wasn’t in uniform, from behind and punched him about the head. When the cop turned to face Walker, the suspect “grabbed him by the chest and throw (him) onto the subway tracks,” Manhattan prosecutors said in a criminal complaint.
Aaron Walker is pictured in police custody leaving the NYPD’s Transit District 4 stationhouse Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Walker also tumbled onto the tracks during the fight, cops said.
After both men climbed back up onto the platform, the two fought some more and Walker ran off, witnesses told police. Cops caught up with Walker on an L train at the 14th St.-Union Square station.
Aaron Walker is walked out of the Transit District 4 stationhouse at the Union Square subway station on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025, in Manhattan, New York, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
The cop was taken to Bellevue Hospital with bruising and pain to his head, neck and arm, cops said.
“I’m sorry that happened to him,” the young officer’s neighbor in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, who gave her name only as Lorraine, told the Daily News Wednesday. “He’s a very good person.”
The News is withholding the name of the officer, who joined the department in January 2023.
Walker has a long criminal history, including 28 prior arrests, 10 of them felonies, police said.
Before the subway platform clash, Walker had been arrested four times in just the last seven weeks — twice in Brooklyn and twice in Manhattan, three of them for shoplifting.
In one of the Brooklyn cases, he is accused of repeatedly punching a man he was seated next to on a C train heading into the Kingston-Throop Aves. station in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Sept. 13.
He was arrested on Aug. 9 for trying to swipe eight vinyl records valued at $300 from the Barnes & Noble store on Court St. near Atlantic Ave. in Cobble Hill, documents show.
Then, on Sept. 3, he was arrested for swiping more vinyl records from another Barnes & Noble, this one in Manhattan’s Union Square, cops said. He was also arrested on Sept. 17 for shoplifting at a Target in lower Manhattan.
Walker has upcoming court appearances on all four of those recent cases.
Originally Published: September 25, 2025 at 12:42 PM EDT