By Chris Francescani
NEW YORK, May 6 (Reuters) – A handcuffed teenager remained
at large on Monday after knocking a New York City police
detective to the ground and fleeing into a Manhattan subway
station, triggering a manhunt that paralyzed parts of the
transit system for 90 minutes, authorities said.
Vincens Vuktilaj, 17, was moving so fast he ran “right out
of his shoes” before descending into a Harlem subway station, a
New York police official said.
Power was cut shortly before 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) to four
transit lines between Midtown and Upper Manhattan as police
searched for Vuktilaj, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority
spokeswoman said.
Thousands of passengers were stuck on subway platforms for
nearly 90 minutes as authorities prowled the subterranean
tunnels below Harlem, hunting for the teenager.
One train was trapped between stations when power was shut
and a “rescue train” was sent for the 515 passengers, said MTA
spokeswoman Marissa Baldeo.
Vuktilaj is suspected in five attacks on elderly women in
Upper Manhattan last month, including an April 16 robbery of a
93-year-old Harlem woman who had two gold chains ripped from her
neck while standing in her driveway.
Vuktilaj was arrested last Friday and charged in two
attacks, and was later released on bail, according to a police
news release.
He was being re-arrested on Monday on grand larceny charges
after investigators turned up new evidence against him, the
police official said.
(Reporting by Chris Francescani; Editing by Daniel Trotta and
Leslie Adler)
