{"id":785943,"date":"2026-05-10T06:15:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T06:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/785943\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T06:15:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T06:15:43","slug":"subway-shove-suspect-appears-in-court-after-allegedly-killing-retired-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/785943\/","title":{"rendered":"Subway shove suspect appears in court after allegedly killing retired teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recidivist madman accused of fatally shoving a retired Big Apple teacher<\/a> flashed a killer smile in his first court appearance Saturday\u00a0to face second-degree murder charges in the case.<\/p>\n

Rhamell Burke<\/a>, who\u2019s been arrested four times since February, showed no remorse at\u00a0his\u00a0Manhattan Criminal Court\u00a0arraignment\u00a0for the random attack against retired teacher Ross Falzone.<\/p>\n

The suspect, clad in a black sweatshirt and holding a surgical mask while his hands were cuffed behind his back,\u00a0seemed giddy as he stood before Judge Linda Capitti.<\/p>\n

Rhamell Burke (above) flashed a delilish grin in court after allegedly shoving and killing a man in a Manhattan subway station. Michael Nagle for NY Post<\/p>\n

Burke, 32,\u00a0had been\u00a0taken to\u00a0Bellevue Hospital in handcuffs by cops around 3:30 p.m. Thursday as an \u201cemotionally disturbed person,\u201d but was allowed to leave an hour later.<\/p>\n

That evening he was\u00a0caught on video as he followed the 76-year-old victim near a Chelsea subway station, according to a Manhattan prosecutor who called the attack \u201ccompletely unprovoked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Falzone is seen slowly walking towards the subway entrance at the 18th St. 1 train station\u00a0with Burke walking behind him, the footage shows, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Burke then allegedly uses both hands to shove the unsuspecting victim down the stairs, according to the prosecutor.<\/p>\n

The judge ordered Burke\u00a0remanded\u00a0and\u00a0called\u00a0him\u00a0a flight risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The victim was 76-year-old retired teacher Ross Falzone. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything else, judge?\u201d Burke, who did not enter a plea,\u00a0bizarrely asked Capitti as he was led out of the courtroom.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 2, Burke was accused of petty larceny for opening a bag of chips at a Duane Reade at One World Trade Center and trying to leave without paying, police sources said.<\/p>\n

When Port Authority cops responded, he assaulted three of them, leaving them with cuts and shoulder injuries, prosecutors said Saturday as they read his existing cases in court.<\/p>\n

The front page of the New York Post on Saturday, May 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

He was charged\u00a0with assaulting the officers\u00a0and initially taken to Bellevue \u2014 but later given supervised release, records and sources said.<\/p>\n

Just two weeks later, on Feb. 14, Burke was arrested again in a bizarre case in which\u00a0officers responded to a call of a man carrying a shovel at the No. 1 subway station on Seventh Avenue and West 23rd Street in Chelsea, police sources said.<\/p>\n

Police who responded were told\u00a0Burke \u2014 who sources said used the name Byron Cherry \u2014\u00a0kicked in an MTA subway scrubber room door, stole the shovel\u00a0and used it to smash several car doors. He also\u00a0threw a trash can onto the tracks, which later caused one train to go out of service.<\/p>\n

The suspect seen on a flight of subway stairs after he was released from Bellevue. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

Burke was also arrested on Feb. 25 in Brooklyn, this time for resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, weapons possession and drug charges after sources said cops found him lying on a subway bench and taking up multiple seats on a C train.<\/p>\n

He allegedly held onto a train pole and kicked officers as they tried to cuff him, the sources added.<\/p>\n

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Cops allegedly found Burke with a large kitchen knife, a crack pipe and a syringe with narcotics\u00a0\u2014 but was still released on his own recognizance.<\/p>\n

He was charged with criminal mischief and reckless endangerment in the shovel case and again given supervised release, but later missed a court date in March, sources said. A bench warrant was issued and but vacated when he showed up to an April 6 appearance.<\/p>\n

Rhamell Burke has been arrested four times since February. Robert Mecea for New York Post<\/p>\n

On\u00a0April 2,\u00a0he\u00a0allegedly attacked a woman on a subway car<\/a>\u00a0and was charged with third-degree assault\u00a0\u2014 but the woman declined to cooperate with prosecutors, she later told The Post.<\/p>\n

In that case, prosecutors requested\u00a0$3,000 cash or $9,000 bond but Judge Marva Brown\u00a0freed him on supervised release.<\/p>\n

Brown, a former Legal Aid Society attorney, is best known for causing a firestorm after she released Amira Hunter in February 2024 after Hunter was accused of smashing a water bottle onto the head of cellist Iain S. Forrest as he performed in the Herald Square Station.<\/p>\n

Falzone\u2019s neighbor,\u00a0Ivy Vega,\u00a0told The Post she\u00a0was\u00a0gutted\u00a0over\u00a0the death of her \u201cvery kind\u201d friend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tragedy on both ends, the fact that, Ross, had to die in such a senseless way,\u201d the 33-year-old said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think it\u2019s also a tragedy that\u2019s a failure of the system. Mental health issues, and mental health crises are very real issues in the city, across the country, in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The recidivist madman accused of fatally shoving a retired Big Apple teacher flashed a killer smile in his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":785944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,12937,461,281,4219,4221,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,81537,22598,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":["post-785943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-assaults","tag-chelsea","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-homicide","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-subway-shoves","tag-teachers","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116548817849444392","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}