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Subway saw-attack suspect arraigned

LUIS PEREZ and CARA TABACHNICK and amNY.com | NEWSDAY STAFF WRITERS

1:23 PM EDT, July 7, 2006

Saw attack suspect Tareyton Williams walks through a gate as he is escorted away from a holding cell at 59th Street & Columbus Circle subway station at approximately 12:15 a.m. (Newsday Photo/ James A. Escher / July 7, 2006)

The man suspected of rampaging through a Manhattan subway station wielding two portable power saws and attacking a passenger was arraigned Friday on multiple charges.

Three hours after Michael Steinberg, 64, was attacked at the 110th Street 1 / 9 station at about 3 a.m., police arrested Tareyton Williams, 33, of the Bronx. Williams, who has a prison record for attempted drug sales, was charged with attempted murder and robbery, police said.

Steinberg, a Manhattan postal employee, said workers did nothing as Williams, sliced open his chest with a power-saw early Thursday.

Before he crossed through the turnstile, Steinberg said he saw a man wielding two buzzing power saws - used to tear through wood and concrete - and several workers running scared on the platform.

"The guy came outside, where I was standing. He looked at me, and before I knew it, he was attacking me," Steinberg said in a telephone interview from his hospital bed at St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where he was in critical but stable condition with a punctured lung and a possible broken rib.

Steinberg, who was on his way to his job in the East Village, said he didn't know what was going on. "I thought I was going to die. I was bleeding every place, (even) through the mouth.

"I screamed for help, 'Please help, please help me'" said Steinberg, who lives on 113th Street. "The transit authority people heard me, and they just looked at me, and they never stopped to help me. That disturbs me more than anything else."

Paul Fleuranges, a spokesman for New York City Transit, said that the station agent who was in the token booth alerted officials through an emergency warning system that alerts police and paramedics.

"I don't think an incident like this, where a guy [seized] an opportunity while the workers were focused on getting out of the way of the train, should make our customers feel unsafe," he said.

The workers were employed by Five Star Electric Corp. of Ozone Park, Fleuranges said. An employee of that firm who answered the phone declined to comment.

The suspect had snatched two cordless power saws from a workbench being used by a contractor before attacking Steinberg, police said. The suspect also robbed Steinberg of his wallet, which contained $200 and credit cards, police said.

Williams, who was arrested after punching another man uptown, was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center for psychiatric evaluation, police said. State prison records show that Williams served six years in a Suffolk state prison for attempted drug sale convictions. City police said Williams was arrested in June for possession of marijuana.

Staff Writer Herbert Lowe and freelance reporter Jennifer Peltz contributed reporting for this article.