2-year-old Shamari Anderson broke away from his mother on a busy platform in the subway in Manhattan and a few seconds was sandwiched between a subway car and the platform.
«His first word was «Mama»,» said his grandmother Simone Stanley, which described Samari as a «very happy child». She said that he and his mother, 20-year-old Sheila Sowell, were inseparable.
All day before the tragedy they had in Stanley house in East new York, shopping at a nearby store chain Dollar Tree. They then boarded the train with Samari to head to Harlem, back to the homeless shelter where they both lodged.
«She had her bag, she carried it down the stairs, Stanley said Daily News. She put him to improve his clothes, and I don’t know, split them up or it was demolished, but, before she grabbed him, I think he fell into the gap between the platform and the train.»
The ambulance crew managed to free the boy and he was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, where he died.
«Samari was energetic, he was friendly, he was one of a kind… he had my eyes he had everything. Just cannot believe I saw him the day before, and he’s gone, ‘ said the broken father, 21-year-old Davion Anderson. I just can’t believe it… as soon As I saw his body I cried, why him?»
«The difference between life and death for 2-year-old Shamari Anderson was just a few seconds on a busy Manhattan subway platform.
Shamari wriggled free from his… https://t.co/m3saQy2a3v
— isaiah imani (@imani_isaiah) December 13, 2019
Eric Legal, the head of the rail transit organization of trade Union of transport workers Local 100, said that the death of Shamari became the second operator of the train.
The same employee was traveling on a train March 1, 2018, when it jumped a teenager, according to the source MTA. After this incident, the employee «was on vacation for a considerable period of time due to injury».
«This is an unspeakable tragedy, and our thoughts are with the family and crew of the train,» added Legal.
