NYC Subway Death Push & Photo - December 2012: Homeless Man Charged, NY Post Loving Photo Controversy

Authorities have charged a 30-year-old homeless man with second-degree murder in the death of a Korean-born man pushed in front of an oncoming subway train Monday, reported Yahoo News.

The suspect, Naeem Davis, was arraigned Wednesday evening and ordered held without bail in the death of 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han. He is due back in court on Dec. 11, 2012.

Walking past reporters in handcuffs following his arraignment, he blamed the victim for the tragedy.

"He attacked me first. He grabbed me," Davis said.

Asked by a television news reporter if he meant to kill Han, Davis replied "No."

Prosecutor James Lin told the judge that Davis saw the train strike Han before leaving the Times Square station.

"The defendant never once offered any aid to the victim as the train approached the platform and in fact, this defendant watched the train hit the victim," Lin said.

Davis' Legal Aid lawyer, Stephen Pokart, countered this version of events outside the court saying his client reportedly "was involved in an incident with a man who was drunk and angry."

Leigh Weingus, a witness who spoke the New York Times said Han appeared to be aggressive toward Davis.

"The victim kept saying 'Hey! Hey!' at the suspect, getting closer and closer to him," she said. "At first Davis appeared calm, saying 'I don't know you, you don't know me, get out of my face."

Han's wife had said she had argued with her husband that morning and that he had been drinking, according to the New York Post.

Davis is alleged to have pushed Han onto the train tracks following a verbal altercation. Police took Davis into custody for questioning Tuesday after a security video showed a man fitting the suspect's description working with street vendors near Rockefeller Center.

Witnesses revealed to investigators they saw a man talking to himself Monday afternoon before the man approached Han at the Times Square station. Han died shortly after being struck by the oncoming train, said Fox News. He tried to climb off the tracks to safety, but was pinned between the train and the platform's edge, police said.

A grisly image of Han attempting to climb back onto the platform as the train raced towards him has gone viral in the wake of the tragedy, igniting national outrage when the New York Post made the photograph it's entire front page, accompanied by the headline, "Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die. DOOMED."

R. Umar Abbasi, the New York Post freelance photographer who took the now-infamous photos Han about to be struck by the subway train, says he never wanted to be at the center of this news event.

"I would rather not be the story," he told USA Today. "I would prefer to be the storyteller."

Abbasi insists he didn't have enough time to help Han from the tracks as he was more than 100 feet away. The photographer says he's still incredibly shaken by the incident.

"It is hard on me. Every time I speak with someone, I relive the moment," Abbasi said. "I am reliving the pain and the sounds that are associated with this tragedy."

"My condolences to the family," Abbasi told NBC's Today. "If I could have, I would have pulled Mr. Han out. I didn't care about the photographs."

For its part, the New York Post seems to relish being at the center of controversy. The publication has run various stories on the widespread media reactions to its polarizing decision to run Abbasi's photo on its front page.

The Post displays criticisms of the photograph like proud battle wounds that somehow prove its progressive ethics or un-matched bravery:

'The NY Post cover today crosses the line, IMHO. A pic of a man pushed onto a subway track right before he is struck and killed. Grim,' wrote ProPublica reporter Charles Ornstein on Twitter.

Joe Pompeo, of the Web site Capital New York, posted, "We nominate the wood [front page] of today's New York Post as one of the most horrific tabloid covers in history."

Ian Prior, sports editor of The Guardian, agreed. "Sickening rubber-necking front page from the New York Post. Imagine how this man's family feels,'' he tweeted.

Meanwhile, the Han family is reportedly devastated and says the Post front-page photo has only made things worse. According to the family's pastor, the family was so upset by the photo they had to stay with him for comfort.

"I just wish I had one last chance to tell my dad how much I love him," the victim's daughter, Ashley Han said, reported The Christian Science Monitor.