A maniac just released from a psych ward pushed an elderly man to his death down Manhattan subway steps in a brutal unprovoked attack late Thursday, police said.
Rhamell Burke, 32 — who was still wearing his plastic bracelet from Belleuve Hosptial at the time of the attack — allegedly hurled total stranger Ross Falzone, 76, down the steps leading to the No. 1 train station at West 18th Street and 7th Avenue in Chelsea around 9:30 p.m., cops said.
Falzone was a high school teacher who lived an active life, and especially enjoyed the symphony, his neighbors recalled.
“He must [have] been coming home from wherever he was,” said neighbor Marc Stager, 78, who moved into Falzone’s Upper West Side building in 1981 and knew the senior since then. “He’s just a helpless old guy. What a cowardly and idiotic thing to do.”
Moments before the deadly violence, Burke trailed about 30 yards behind Falzone as he walked north on Seventh Avenue, authorities said.
As the men approached the train station at that intersection, Burke allegedly sped up and violently shoved the innocent senior down the steps into the station, according to police.
Falzone landed on his head about halfway down the stairs and suffered a traumatic brain injury, right rib fracture and spinal fracture, cops said.
Officers found Falzone unconscious and unresponsive, and medics rushed him to Bellevue Hospital, where he died just before 3 a.m. Friday, authorities said.
Burke was “acting erratically” outside the NYPD’s 17th Precinct station house just before 3:30 p.m. Thursday — about six hours before the attack, cops said.
He allegedly grabbed a stick out of a garbage container and held it to his side while approaching an officer, police said.
Cops demanded that the unhinged man drop the stick, which he did within about three seconds, cops said.
Burke was ultimately taken to Bellevue Hospital as an “emotionally disturbed person,” police said.
He was shuffled through the triage area and moved to the hospital’s Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program, which released him around 4:40 p.m., cops said.
His actions between his release and the time of the fatal shove were not immediately known.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani called on Bellevue to probe the circumstances surrounding the evaluation of Burke.
“I am horrified by the killing of Ross Falzone and the circumstances that led to it. I extend my condolences to his loved ones,” Hizzoner said in a statement.
“New Yorkers deserve answers. That is why I’ve directed NYC Health + Hospitals to conduct both an immediate investigation on what steps should have been taken to prevent this tragedy and a comprehensive review of their psychiatric evaluation and discharge protocols.”
Burke was picked up by two detectives on the northbound C and E platform of Penn Station around 3:30 p.m. Friday, authorities and sources said.
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The keen-eyed pair recognized the fleeing culprit from his photo, cops said.
He was awaiting charges by the early evening.
Meanwhile, Falzone’s longtime neighbor, Stager, described him as a “sweet and decent guy” who “wasn’t a hermit,” and made his career teaching English or history.
“He had something of a life. He had a good pension and social security so he was financially secure,” Stager added.
Upstairs neighbor Briel Waxman, who is in her mid-30s and works in advertising, said she often heard classical music playing from Falzone’s unit.
“He went to live performances at Lincoln Center. I would often see him as I was coming back from a late night around midnight,” Waxman said.
A 32-year-old pediatric doctor who has lived in the building for five years said Falzone “lived in a walk up and was always out and about.”
“I would see him if I was leaving for a late shift,” the doctor said. “He’d be going out for dinner late just like any regular New Yorker.”
“He’s lived here for a very long time and he had many stories to tell about the building before its renovation,” the pediatrician added.
