A man was hit and killed by a downtown 1 train Monday morning at the 116th Street station, police officers on site confirmed.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers and police officers said that it was likely a suicide, though the official cause of death is being investigated.
A New York Police Department detective, who requested anonymity, said the victim was not a Columbia student and that he was born in 1991, according to identification found on the man’s body.
An official NYPD spokesperson confirmed that emergency medical technicians declared the victim dead at the scene. A spokesperson said release of the identity was still pending family notification as of Monday evening, but that investigators had ruled out any criminal intent in this case—no one pushed the victim onto the tracks.
An MTA supervisor who arrived on site at approximately 11:40 a.m. said that the body was disfigured from a front-end collision.
Another MTA official added that the man died on impact.
Investigator Anthony Braxton of the MTA, who was examining the scene after the 1 train resumed operations, said the incident happened near the north end of the platform when the train first entered the station. He said the train operator braked immediately after the young man jumped, but the victim had already been hit.
Police officers and MTA employees tried to redirect passengers to alternative routes. They used a megaphone to announce that downtown service on the 1 train was suspended to 96th Street. Passengers described the scene as one of chaos and confusion.
“This has been a nightmare,” Juliet Cameron, a local commuter, said. “These people have been switching me to everywhere except where I want to go.”
Officers were patrolling the platform of the closed-off downtown side. Downtown service on the 1 train resumed at approximately 12:50 p.m.
A University spokesperson said that Columbia could not yet comment on the situation.
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