The man who cheated death at a Bronx subway station on Wednesday — surviving a hit from an oncoming train after being shoved onto the tracks — was joking about the traumatic incident less than 7 hours later.
“Now, I have no leg,” quipped Luis Henriques, 43, of Claremont.
Speaking to his landlord, Marisol Del Castillo, over the phone at around 1 p.m. — shortly after having his left leg amputated — Henriques tried his best to keep things lighthearted, despite the tragic circumstances.
“He was in pain and he was making jokes about it,” Del Castillo told The Post. “He’s the type of person who makes jokes.”
Henriques had been standing on the platform of the B and D lines at Grand Concourse and East 170th Street — waiting to go to his construction job in Brooklyn — when he got into an argument with a turnstile jumper at around 6:40 a.m., police sources said.
At some point, either during or after the dispute, Henriques was pushed onto the tracks just as a train was coming into the station. But instead of being fatally struck, he managed to only have his leg crushed, the sources said.
Recalling her conversation with Henriques, Del Castillo said the Bronxite told her he didn’t see the shove coming.
“I just felt somebody push me,” he said.
Henriques was rushed to Lincoln Hospital in serious condition, and remained there on Wednesday evening.
“He’s in the hospital right now. They amputated his leg,” said Luz Mendez, a 56-year-old who also lives in Del Castillo’s building and has known Henriques for about five years.
The subway tracks following the incident at 170th Street.Seth Gottfried“He’s a very beautiful person,” she said. “Very kind and loving,”
Both neighbors told The Post that it shocked them to hear about Henriques’ getting into a fight with a random person, on account of his mellow nature.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Mendez said. “He’s never in fights. He comes from work, stays in his house. Eats, showers, goes to sleep. [I’m] very shocked.”
Now, after losing his leg, Henriques may be forced to find a new form of employment.
“His type of job is construction – painting, demolition,” Del Castillo explained. “He’s not going to be able to work no more as what he loves to do.”
“It’s frustrating,” Del Castillo added. “Bad things happen to good people.”
