Suspect in New York City Hate Crime Murder, Kevin Darden, Has Long History of Enjoying Affirmative Action Justice; i.e., Little or No Punishment for His Crimes

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

Thanks to reader-researchers AL and David in TN for this article.
 

Violent parolee wanted in deadly subway shove
By Kirstan Conley, Rebecca Harshbarger, Shawn Cohen and Yaron Steinbuch
November 17, 2014 | 7:03 p.m.
New York Post

A violent parolee was being sought Monday for allegedly pushing a Bronx dad to his death in front of a subway train — as the motorman apologized to the victim’s family for not being able to stop in time.

The suspect was identified as homeless thug Kevin Darden — who has more than 30 arrests, including for trying to set his brother’s house on fire.

The 34-year-old vagrant, who has done at least one stint in prison, was most recently arrested Nov. 9 in Midtown for pickpocketing, sources said.

Darden is the prime suspect in the death of Wai Kuen Kwok, 61, who was randomly pushed in front of a D train at the East 167th Street station in Highbridge at about 8:45 a.m. Sunday as his horrified wife looked on, the sources said.

Motorman James Muriel told The Post that he is grieving for Kwok’s widow.

“I would like to apologize to the family,” Muriel said. “There was nothing I could have done.

“I see a body flying across the tracks. I placed the train in emergency. The train doesn’t stop right away,” he went on.

“All of my passengers were crying with me. They were consoling me. They told me it wasn’t my fault.”

Muriel, a 23-year MTA veteran, said he was so shaken that passengers had to help him out of his subway cab so he could look at Kwok to see whether he was still alive, as is procedure.

He said Kwok’s wife, Yow Ho Lee, ran to him and cried uncontrollably into his chest.

“She spoke to me in broken English. She said, ‘Help me! Help me! Help me! Call someone!’ ” he recalled. “I told her police and EMS are en route.”

Muriel noted that it was the third time he has had the bad luck of striking a person with a train.

He said he took off from his job for eight months to deal with trauma after the second incident in 2013, in which a man also died.

He returned to the job only because of his daughter’s college bills, he said.

Kwok’s killer is believed to have hopped on a city bus to escape the scene.

He got off a few blocks away and headed straight into a bodega, where he bought a 50-cent “loosie” cigarette and smoked it outside, witnesses said.

“He seemed calm. He seemed relaxed,” said Deimer Alvarez, 24, a worker at the New Yemen Deli on Jessup Avenue. “But maybe that’s why he bought the cig — to relax.”

Melik Gregory, a construction worker, said he recognized the alleged killer from surveillance video that cops released.

“When I saw the video, I said, ‘I’ve seen that guy before! That’s the guy that’s always walking around the neighborhood asking for change,’ ” Gregory recalled.

Darden was arrested in Texas for allegedly pouring “an ignitable substance” inside his brother’s Texas home in 2011, according to the Longview News-Journal.

Additional reporting by Amanda Lozada and Laurel Babcock