The man accused of killing a 76-year-old man by pushing him down a stairway at a Chelsea subway station was released from a psychiatric evaluation just hours before the attack, officials said.
Rhamell Burke, 32, made his first court appearance on Saturday and has been charged with second-degree murder for the May 7 attack.
Police said that surveillance video showed Burke violently shoving Ross Falzone down the stairs at the 18th Street subway station around 9:30 pm that day.
Falzone was rushed to Bellevue Hospital by paramedics but succumbed to his injuries overnight.
Burke was taken to Bellevue hospital for a psychiatric evaluation just hours before the attack and was released after about one hour, then discharged, per officials.
He has been arrested as many as four times since February and was taken to Bellevue after “acting erratically” outside the NYPD’s 17th Precinct station house just before 3:30 pm.
