Suspected subway pusher Erika Menendez is going to get a full psych evaluation, and from the sound of things, she needs it.
We previously reported that Menendez admitted to fatally pushing 46-year-old Sunando Sen onto the tracks of the New York City subway, and that she had done so because of 9/11, Muslims, and insanity . She reportedly told arresting officers that “it was an act against Muslims,” even though Sen was Hindu.
It gets worse. The New York Post reports that Menendez’s arraignment last night was an incredibly disturbing scene fit for some melodramatic prime-time TV court drama. As she was being arraigned, Menendez reportedly laughed so hard that she shook, and appeared “unhinged,” drawing the ire of the judge.
“You’re going to have to have your client stop laughing,” he told her lawyers.
The Associated Press reports that 31-year-old Menendez is currently being held without bail and is set to undergo a mental health evaluation today.
An un-identified man who picked up the telephone at Menendez’s family residence said that Erika has a history of mental illness.
“Erika is a bipolar person, and that is why this happened—not because she was a terrorist,” the un-named man said. “She’s been in Elmhurst Hospital 10 to 15 times.”
Additionally, an aunt told the Post that the family has tried to get Menendez help in the past, but “when they go into the hospital, they just give her two pills and throw her back out on the street.”
Menendez’s subway pushing is being charged as a hate crime.
