The 31-year-old New York woman charged with the murder of an Indian immigrant has been ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation after she laughed at the court, telling the judge she thought it would be “cool” to push the victim in front of a train.
Erika Menendez has been charged with murder as a hate crime for pushing 46-year-old Sunando Sen in front of an oncoming train at a subway station in Queens on December 27.
Sen owned a printing and copying business. It has emerged that he has no family in India. A Kolkata native, he lived with roommates in a small apartment in Queens and was unmarried.
Menendez was arraigned on Saturday night and she showed no remorse for her actions during the court hearing. According to the Queens District Attorney’s office, Menendez laughed uncontrollably and smiled during the hearing, telling prosecutors that she pushed Sen onto the subway track for no reason.
“I pushed a Muslim,” Assistant District Attorney Michelle Kaszuba quoted Menendez as telling detectives during the hearing. “There is no reason. I just pushed him in front of the train because I thought it would be cool. I just pushed him because he was Muslim.”
Asked if Menendez showed any regret for the crime, Kaszuba said the woman told the authorities: “Nope, I don’t like to regret anything. It is what it is.”
Menendez’s behaviour at the hearing even infuriated Judge Gia Morris, who ordered the woman’s defence lawyer Dietrich Epperson to “Tell your client this is not funny. You’re going to have to have your client stop laughing. This is not appropriate.”
Mr. Epperson told the judge that Menendez’s behaviour in court was not different from how she was behaving since her arrest and said her client did not think the proceedings were funny. The judge ordered that Menendez be held without bail and undergo psychiatric evaluation before her next court hearing on January 14. Menendez has not entered any plea.
She appears another mad cap living in united states. Pity for her poor thinking and state of mind. Railways world over should ponder as to how to overcome such incidents in future.
Folks please understand....this awful crime was not committed by a person who is representative of all of the people of the United States, far from it. It was done by a person who is mentally ill and needs psychiatric care immediately as well as separation from society as a whole. She laughed the entire time after being apprehended because she is far from her right mind. It's noteworthy that the woman is part of an immigrant minority group herself, more the reason why her actions speak of her insanity, not a natural condition of preferences of one group over another.
Disappointing! Even the U.S.A. is not safe and free from religion
based discrimination.
People should thing of other men/women as themselves and not think about their race, caste, religion, nationality, language etc., They should understand that no one is different from the other in body and spirit. All are creatures of Nature and deserve decent treatment. Of course on some occasions some horrible incident do take place but to characterize such incidents as language/religion/race etc oriented and to target people of that group is nothing but insane act. People need to be taught about human values and not to simply retaliate for every thing. Certainly we need to go to higher levels not simply in economics, science, medicine, entertainment etc, but equally in understanding human values. Right from primary school level this has to be taught and inculcated in the young minds and as well repeated in school/college level through media and by NGOs along with Government world over. United Nations has to take a leading role. ALL ARE OUR RELATIVES AND WHOLE WORLD IS ONE FAMILY.
What is needed are double doors and walls that exclude the subway tunnel from riders just like elevators have double doors to prevent riders from falling down the elevator shaft.
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