Erika Menendez: Accused NYC Subway Pusher Had Long History With Police, Mental Health Issues

Erika Menendez had been arrested several times in the past five years and had a history of mental health issues, police said of the accused NYC subway pusher.

The 31-year-old Erika Menendez is being held without bail on a murder charge in the death of Sunando Sen. Menendez told police she pushed the 46-year-old India native as payback for 9/11, thinking that the man was a Muslim. He was Hindu, police said.

Menendez told police she shoved the man off the subway platform because she “thought it would be cool,” The Associated Press reported.

Police said Erika Menedez was not taking her prescribed medicine. In the past five years, police had been called to her house five times for reports of an emotionally disturbed woman.

Her police record paints a picture of an emotionally disturbed young woman prone to fits of violence. From The Associated Press:

“Menendez had been as:rrested several times, starting when she was young. In 2003, she was arrested on charges she punched a 28-year-old man in the face inside her Queens home, but the case was later dropped. She pleaded guilty later that year to assaulting a stranger on the street near her home. The victim, retired Fire Department official Daniel Conlisk, said the attack was violent and relentless.

“He said he was sorting recyclables outside his home one night when Menendez approached him and punched him in the face, screaming that he was having sex with her mother.”

Menendez also had a spotted mental health history, a source told the New York Times.

“She has been in and out of institutions,” a law enforcement official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Just this last year, Erika Menendez was discharged from Bellevue, a source with knowledge of her medical history said.