When the story of a man pushed to his death on subway tracks first broke this week, many asked why no one helped. But one New Yorker says he would have stepped in -- just as he did several years ago.
"There is no doubt, if I had been there, I would have did something," Wes Autrey told WABC.
On Monday, Ki-Suck Han, 58, was pushed toward an approaching Q train when it struck and killed him. As witnesses looked on, a photographer snapped a photo of the impeding collision that became the cover of the New York Post.
Autrey, 50, says someone should have taken action.
"Maybe if one person had reached out maybe two or three would have joined in, sometimes it takes one to start something," he said.
Nearly six years ago, Autrey was faced with a similar split-second decision while standing on a subway platform with his two daughters, Syshe, 4, and Shuqui, 6.
According to CBS News, Cameron Hollopeter, 19, suffered a seizure and fell onto the tracks at Broadway's 137th Street station. When Autrey saw Hollopeter fall, he jumped on the tracks and tried to pull him to safety as a train approached.
In an attempt to avoid the oncoming vehicle, Autrey lay on Hollopeter, who was still convulsing, the New York Times reported. He pressed their bodies down in an area at the center of the tracks roughly a foot deep.
The train's operator saw the pair and put the emergency brakes on, but a few of the train's cars passed over them with inches to spare.
"I've got two daughters up there," he yelled to the nervous crowd when the train finally screeched to a halt. "Let them know their father’s O.K.”
He was dubbed the subway superman and received national acclaim for his heroism.
Watch the video above for his full call to action in the wake of Ki-Suck Han's death.
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