Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, was pushed on to the tracks on the southbound N/Q/R/W platform at West 42nd Street and Broadway on Saturday at 9:30am
The mayor of New York on Tuesday evening joined hundreds of people for a vigil to remember a Deloitte executive pushed under a subway train on Saturday - hours after admitting that he himself is concerned for his safety on the trains.
Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer, was elected on a promise to make the city safer, but has seen crime rise 65 percent in just the first two weeks since he took office.
On Tuesday night, he paid tribute to Michelle Alyssa Go, a 40-year-old who was shoved into the path of an oncoming train in Times Square, and said the violence has to stop.
'Right here in Times Square, I served as a police officer, and spent many days in the early '80s wearing a blue uniform as a police officer - a transit police officer, watching where we were,' he told the crowd.
'Swearing and committed that we would never go back.'
Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, is seen on Tuesday night at a vigil for Michelle Alyssa Go, who was pushed under a subway train on Saturday by a mentally ill homeless man
Go, 40, is beamed on to the side of Times Square during Tuesday night's vigil
Go's friends and colleagues and hundreds of well-wishers gathered in Times Square to pay their respects
Tributes to the 40-year-old 'fearless' Deloitte executive, who grew up in San Francisco, were on display on Tuesday night
The vigil was organized by Asians Fighting Injustice, and founder Eric Wei told the New York Post the group is demanding that City Hall set up an Asian-American task force to address ongoing concerns over anti-Asian violence.
Anti-Asian crime was up 361 percent in 2021 compared to 2020, with 129 anti-Asian crimes, according to the NYPD - and 183 anti-Semitic crimes.
A mentally ill homeless man, who was well known to police, has been arrested for shoving Go.
It is unknown if her racial background was a factor in the 9:40am attack on Saturday, but police suggested it was random.
Simon Martial, 61 - who admitted to killing her - ranted publicly after his arrest that he was God, and was allowed to do it.
Adams on Sunday sparked widespread anger by seeming to downplay the concerns of subway riders.
'New Yorkers are safe on the subway system,' he said.
'I think it's about 1.7 percent of the crimes in New York City that occur on the subway system.
'Think about that for a moment. What we must do is remove the perception of fear.'
On Tuesday, before the vigil, he backtracked and admitted there was a problem - reversing his previous stance.
'Day One, January 1, when I took the train, I saw the homelessness, the yelling, the screaming early in the morning, crimes right outside the platform,' he said, during an in-person City Hall press briefing.
'We know we have a job to do — and we're going to do both.
'We're going to drive down crime, and we're going to make sure New Yorkers feel safe in our subway system.
'And they don't feel that way now. I don't feel that way when I take the train every day, or when I'm moving throughout our transportation system.'
Adams spoke hours after three women waiting for the downtown 6 train at the 23rd Street station at around 7am told how they were forced to stay behind the turnstiles before running onto their train at the last minute when it arrived.
Protesters calling for greater protection for Asian Americans gathered in Times Square after Go's murder
Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, challenged Adams for the mayor's job. He attended Tuesday's vigil with his colleagues
Go was remembered by her co-workers and friends as someone who loved to travel, and loved life
Adams admitted on Tuesday that he did not feel safe on the subway, despite having said on Sunday that there was merely the 'perception of fear'
Subway riders are seen on Tuesday morning waiting nervously outside behind the turnstiles at the 23rd Street Station in Manhattan, as a screaming man paced the platform
The man was behind the turnstiles (pictured), a rider told DailyMail.com, and three women riders had to rush through the terminals to get on the train when it arrived
Jennifer Smith, 29, who has lived in the area for two years and takes the downtown 6 train from 23rd Street regularly to her media job, said when she arrived, she noticed 'two to three other women standing behind the turnstiles.'
'There was also a six-foot man who'd gone through the turnstiles who was hovering near the exit door near us.
'It was a horrible atmosphere and there wasn't a cop or MTA worker in sight,' she told DailyMail.com on Tuesday.
'When the train did arrive, we all raced through,' she said.
'He was still pacing, I'm not sure if he even got on the train.
'There's always the worry that you'll be followed onto the carriage and then you're stuck there, potentially in a dangerous situation.'
Transit crimes have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic, with many commuters becoming increasingly worried about being thrown on the tracks as more horror stories arise.
The number of felony assaults has also increased by 7.7 percent, and overall, crime is up 35 percent from the same period in 2021, according to the city's crime stats.
Despite the MTA Chairman Janno Lieber commending the mayor for 'getting it,' not all New Yorkers are feeling the same way.
'That station has become a lot more dangerous in the last six months,' Smith told DailyMail.com.
'Before the pandemic, it was always fine and
