Man, 64, fatally beaten in NY subway after chance remark

A commuter at a Brooklyn subway station watched on Tuesday afternoon as a fare evader tried to open an emergency exit that led to the trains.

- STORY: CHELSIA ROSE MARCIUS / NYT

The commuter, Nicola Tanzi, 64, motioned to the man to yank harder on the door. The gesture would be Tanzi's last.

The fare evader pulled Tanzi to the ground, kicked him in the head repeatedly, then picked him up before dropping him on the floor of the station, an episode captured on surveillance video reviewed by The New York Times.

Then the attacker slipped underneath a turnstile and boarded the subway carrying a backpack and a nunchaku, a martial arts weapon, according to the video and a law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter.

Soon after, officers arrived at the station, Jay Street-MetroTech, a busy transit hub in downtown Brooklyn, where they found Tanzi unconscious and with serious head injuries, police said. He later died at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.

On Wednesday, officers in Times Square arrested David Mazariegos, 25, in the killing. He had a nunchaku in his backpack and a samurai sword, the official said. It was not clear whether he was carrying the sword at the time of the attack.

Mazariegos was charged in Brooklyn Criminal Court with firstand second-degree murder, robbery and possession of a stolen credit card, according to court records.

On Thursday, the family, friends and neighbours of Tanzi said he was the youngest of six brothers, a devout Catholic who was raised in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and lived in the borough's Bensonhurst neighbourhood. "He loved his family," Patricia Tanzi, his sister-in-law, said. "He was a joy to be around."