NYC Cellphone Snatcher Jumps Onto Subway Tracks, Gets Hit by Express Train: Police

A nearby 7 platform after the incident. Photo courtesy of Jessica Ramos

WOODSIDE, QUEENS — A man suspected of trying to steal a 13-year-old boy's cellphone on the M Train and punching a Good Samaritan in the nose was hit by a northbound express train when he tried to flee onto the tracks, according to the NYPD.

The 33-year-old mugging suspect came away with only cuts and bruises, and is now in police custody at Elmhurst Hospital, according to the NYPD. (As is the Good Samaritan who got punched in the nose.)

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The F, M, E and R were shut down between boroughs between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. while police investigated.

By 11 a.m., they were running with "extensive delays," according to the MTA. By noon, service appeared to be relatively back to normal.

An NYPD spokesman said the suspected cellphone snatcher carried out his crime aboard an M Train at the Northern Boulevard station, one stop east of 65th. When police officers arrived, they reported that said M Train was halted with its doors open. So they conducted a "roadbed search," the spokesman said, and "discovered a male who had been struck by a train" on the northbound express tracks.

A source familiar with the incident said the robbery suspect was hit by a Manhattan-bound F Train when he tried to flee the scene by jumping onto the tracks.