Overview
- Surveillance video shows 32-year-old Rhamell Burke shove 76-year-old Ross Falzone, a retired special education teacher, down the West 18th Street subway stairs Thursday night, and Falzone died at Bellevue hours later.
- Police say officers had taken Burke to Bellevue that afternoon for a psychiatric evaluation after he acted erratically outside the 17th Precinct, and the hospital released him about an hour later.
- Detectives arrested Burke at Penn Station on Friday and prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder, and a judge ordered him held without bail.
- Mayor Zohran Mamdani directed NYC Health + Hospitals to investigate Bellevue’s intake and discharge process, and state health officials agreed to a broader review of psychiatric evaluations at the hospital.
- Records reported by multiple outlets show Burke had several arrests since February, including an April subway assault that led to supervised release, intensifying calls to tighten involuntary treatment authority and release practices.