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Man who was accidentally pushed onto subway tracks in Brooklyn says he felt like "it was the end"

NYC man accidentally pushed onto subway tracks recounts frightening experience
NYC man accidentally pushed onto subway tracks recounts frightening experience 01:34

NEW YORK -- A man is recovering in the hospital after he was accidentally pushed onto subway tracks and hit by a train in Brooklyn on Thursday.

It happened just before noon at the Jay Street-MetroTech station.

"I felt like I was gonna die. I felt like it was the end," Lemuel Hambrick told CBS New York's Ali Bauman.  

Hambrick, 34, says he was standing near the stairs on the train platform when a man jumped over the railing of the stairs and landed on him, pushing Hambrick onto the tracks.

"I see the train in my peripheral vision from the side. The only thing I was thinking is, oh lord, is this the way I'm going to die?" Hambrick said.

Hambrick held on to the edge of the platform as the train drove into him, pushing him for several feet.

"Holding on the edge for dear life," he said.

When the train stopped, Hambrick says the same man who pushed him then pulled him up from the tracks.

"He takes his bookbag off, he puts it underneath my head, says, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that,'" Hambrick said.

"Do you forgive him?" Bauman asked.

"All the way," Hambrick said, nodding.

Hambrick is left with several broken ribs and burns all over his body, and he will likely have to spend several days in the hospital.

"Are you surprised that you're alive right now?" Bauman said.

"I was calling on God as soon as I hung on that platform ... You call on God, God will definitely look out for you," Hambrick said.

Police arrested a 20-year-old Brooklyn man for two counts of reckless endangerment.

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