The J train was coming into Woodhaven Boulevard, on the elevated tracks over Jamaica Avenue, at about 5:15 on a Wednesday evening, and the car was crowded. Queens prosecutors say that was when Jyrell Thomas screamed, pulled out a knife and began stabbing a man with whom, they say, he had no prior connection.
The man was Mesias Lojano, 59. He died of stab wounds to his chest, neck, lip and back.
Mr. Thomas, 25, of the Bronx, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on a criminal complaint charging him with second-degree murder and two counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on Oct. 5. Judge Indira D. Khan remanded him without bail and ordered him back to court on Oct. 6. If convicted of murder, he faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
The charges are accusations. Mr. Thomas has not been convicted and is presumed innocent. A criminal complaint is not an indictment. The City Politic found no public report of an indictment as of Oct. 24.
The prosecution’s account
The account comes from the district attorney’s office, citing the charges and the investigation, and has not been tested in court.
On Sept. 30, at about 5 p.m., prosecutors say, Mr. Thomas boarded a Queens-bound J train at the Broadway Junction station in Brooklyn. He stood alone in a busy car. At about 5:15 p.m., as the train approached the elevated platform at Woodhaven Boulevard, he allegedly screamed loudly, produced a knife and stabbed Mr. Lojano repeatedly. The district attorney’s office says the two had no prior connection.
When the doors opened, prosecutors say, Mr. Thomas ran, dropping his weapon along the way. Other passengers chased him. Officers responding to 911 calls arrested him two blocks from the station, on top of a garage he had climbed.
Police later recovered two kitchen knives, according to the office. One, broken, was left on the subway car. The other, with blood on its blade, was allegedly dropped down the station stairs as the man fled.
“As alleged, this defendant caused mayhem on a rush hour train when he fatally stabbed a fellow passenger who was minding his own business and had no prior interaction with the perpetrator,” Ms. Katz said. “All New Yorkers want, and deserve, to ride our mass transit system safely and without fear. I thank the good Samaritans who chased the assailant after the attack and our partners at the NYPD for quickly apprehending the defendant. We will seek justice for the victim and his loved ones.”
The chase
CBS New York interviewed two of the people who gave chase. Bismark Villareyna said he recorded video as he ran after the man. “I wasn’t running by myself and I was screaming, then all the guys join,” he told the station.
David Benenson told CBS that the man went up onto one roof, then through an alley and onto another, and that “me and a couple of guys are surrounding him for a few minutes until the cops get there.” He estimated that it took the police less than 10 minutes to arrive.
CBS also reported that police at one point said there had been a verbal dispute, then later said the attack was unprovoked and that there had been no interaction between the two men on the train. The motive, the station reported, remains unclear.
Mesias Lojano
Published accounts of Mr. Lojano’s family differ. QNS described him as a construction worker from Corona and a father of four, originally from Cuenca, Ecuador. It reported that his children had started a GoFundMe to pay for his funeral and burial. CBS New York described him as a married father of six.
He was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, according to QNS, where he died.
His son William told CBS New York, speaking by phone in Spanish, that his father was a man of faith and a hard worker who worked in Brooklyn and took the train or the bus home to Queens. He said his father had no problem with anyone, which makes the killing that much worse.
The case
The investigation was led by Detective Frank Lasala of the 102nd Detective Squad. Assistant District Attorney Gabriel J. Reale of the Homicide Bureau is prosecuting the case, assisted by Assistant District Attorney Angel Semerdzhiev and supervised by Bureau Chief John Kosinski, Deputy Chiefs Karen Ross and Jonathan Selkowe, and Chief Assistant District Attorney Shawn Clark.
No statement from a lawyer for Mr. Thomas appears in the published coverage.
Featured image: A J train arriving at the Woodhaven Boulevard station in Queens. Photo by Tdorante10 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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