Soft-on-crime policies spelled tragedy in Gotham as an elderly man was fatally injured on his way home mere hours after the alleged perpetrator was released from a psychiatric ward.
(Video Credit: PIX11 News)
Like other major cities entrusted to the care of delusional community organizers and social justice simpletons, New York City has continued to be plagued by violent crime under Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D). Now, with Mamdani having prioritized his socialist agenda rather than public safety, a retired school teacher was shoved down the subway stairs to his death hours after the alleged suspect had been taken into custody for his behavior outside a police station that prompted the designation as an “emotionally disturbed person.”
According to the New York Police Department, 32-year-old Rhamell Burke — who’d been arrested four times since February — had been trailing behind 76-year-old Ross Falzone en route to the train station Thursday night when he allegedly closed the distance and shoved the man down the steps before fleeing the scene.
🚨🇺🇸 Ross Falzone was 76. A teacher. Loved the symphony.
Randomly killed by a maniac released from Bellevue an hour after being committed, still wearing the hospital bracelet.
Four prior arrests in four months.
When does the city wake up? When does this finally stop?… pic.twitter.com/Udx13cLJhH
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 9, 2026
The attack, which left Falzone unresponsive on the stairs with a traumatic brain injury as well as spine and rib fractures, took place only hours after Burke was arrested outside the NYPD 17th Precinct station house on East 51st St while “acting erratically” and wielding a stick that he dropped when ordered to by police.
“This happens all the time,” an NYPD official told the New York Post while faulting the “complete collapse” of Mamdani’s response to mental illness. “We brought him in at 3:30 p.m. and he was released just before 5 p.m. Meanwhile, if you or I walked into Bellevue for a headache, it would take 8 hours just to be seen. NYPD uses its involuntary removal powers all the time. And they just get right out with an Advil.”
Following the alleged suspect’s arrest, police brought him to the psychiatric ward at Bellevue Hospital and checked him in as an “emotionally disturbed person,” only for Burke to be released little more than an hour later. Hours after that, the attack on Falzone took place. The elderly man was transported to the same hospital his alleged attacker had been released from, only to succumb to his injuries before 3 a.m.
Burke, whose list of previous arrests includes an alleged random attack on a Port Authority officer, was arrested once more Friday afternoon, a full day after his initial admission to Bellevue.
“He’s just a helpless old guy. What a cowardly and idiotic thing to do,” Falzone’s neighbor, Marc Stager, told the Post while suggesting the victim was most likely on his way home to his Upper West Side apartment.
Reacting to the latest tragedy under his administration, Mamdani issued a statement that read in part, “I am horrified by the killing of Ross Falzone and the circumstances that led to it. I extend my condolences to his loved ones.”
“New Yorkers deserve answers,” he continued. “That is why I’ve directed NYC Health + Hospitals to conduct both an immediate investigation on what steps should have been taken to prevent this tragedy and a comprehensive review of their psychiatric evaluation and discharge protocols.”
In their own statement, the hospital system expressed, “We welcome this review, and we expect that it will find our care was appropriate. NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue is justly nationally recognized for its services for complex patients and all New Yorkers without exception.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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