57 Year Old Legless Man In A Wheelchair Tried To Bomb The 125th Street Subway Station

A man in a wheelchair left a bizarre improvised bomb made of firecrackers taped to shotgun shells in the Metro-North station at 125th St. and Park Ave. “It would be dangerous if ignited. We don’t know if it was a planned prank. If it was, it would have been a dangerous one,” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne. A law enforcement source said the device was in a black Steve Madden shopping bag. Inside, cops found a laptop bag containing a computer, wires, lug nuts, paper and three shotgun shells taped to some M-80 fireworks. Surveillance camera footage showed the bag being left next to a waiting room bench by a man in a wheelchair, who was being pushed by a second man, according to the source. A 57-year-old legless man was questioned by police and admitted for psychiatric evaluation. The device was not capable of being detonated remotely, but “if it was lit, someone could have been hurt pretty bad,” a law enforcement source said. Two MTA patrol officers spotted the package shortly after 11 a.m. The platforms were evacuated and trains bypassed the station. Service resumed by 2 p.m. “I might have been killed or something,” said shocked commuter Maria Desjardin, 55, a project coordinator from Cortland. “Nothing fazes me in New York, but a bomb is scary. That’s big stuff.”