Sanctuary city policies and repeated deportation failures have now claimed the life of a grandfather who served his country.
Another preventable tragedy has unfolded in New York City, where an 83-year-old US Air Force veteran and grandfather has died after being randomly shoved onto subway tracks by a four-time deported illegal migrant.
Richard Williams succumbed to his injuries days after the March 8 attack at the Lexington Avenue-63rd Street station on the Upper East Side. He was waiting for a train when Honduran national Bairon Hernandez allegedly pushed him and another man onto the tracks just before noon.
83-year-old veteran randomly shoved onto NYC subway tracks dies from injuries, illegal migrant charged with murder https://t.co/NrNzQsEgBK pic.twitter.com/pW9rEjZSot
— New York Post (@nypost) March 26, 2026
The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. Prosecutors had earlier described Williams as “brain-dead.” His daughter, Debbie Williams, told The Post days after the incident that her father “was not likely to pull through.”
This is the deadly update to the story we first reported here, when Williams was left in critical condition with multiple fractures and brain bleeding.
As we noted then, Hernandez — also known as Bairon Posada-Hernandez — is a “serial criminal” with at least 15 prior charges, including aggravated assault, possession of a weapon, and domestic violence. He had been deported from the United States four times but kept illegally returning, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis stated at the time, “Bairon Posada-Hernandez is a serial criminal and four-time deported illegal alien from Honduras who should never have been able to walk our streets and harm innocent Americans.”
Bis added, “We are praying for the victims and their families. DHS is calling upon New York sanctuary politicians to commit to this ICE detainer and not release this heinous criminal back into New York communities.”
A second victim, John Pena (also referred to as Jhon Rodriguez), 30, was shoved onto the tracks alongside Williams but heroically helped pull the veteran back onto the platform seconds before a train arrived. Chilling cellphone video captured Hernandez casually strolling along the platform afterward.
Hernandez now faces a murder charge and is due back in court March 30. New York’s sanctuary status continues to shield such individuals despite federal detainers — exactly the kind of policy that enabled this attack and so many others.
Williams was not just any victim. An Air Force veteran and beloved grandfather, he embodied the generation that built this country. His granddaughter Samantha Loria captured the family’s pain, noting “The hardest part is I can’t have a conversation, or hug him again… Any time I visit him, we walk around. We would go to Manhattan. He would always say hi to everyone, ask how they’re doing. It doesn’t hurt anything to be kind.”
Yet kindness toward law-abiding Americans is precisely what open-borders ideologues and sanctuary politicians refuse to prioritize. Instead, they protect repeat offenders who should never have been in the country in the first place. The body count keeps rising — veterans, mothers, college students, everyday citizens — while the same failed policies remain untouched.
These incidents are part of a relentless pattern. Just weeks ago, a Sierra Leone illegal with over 30 prior arrests — including rape — stabbed a Virginia mother to death at a bus stop.
And in Chicago, an illegal Venezuelan migrant released twice under Biden policies allegedly executed Loyola freshman Sheridan Gorman.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker responded by ludicrously blaming President Trump for that murder, as we detailed here.
It’s a doom loop enabled by years of open border madness.
America First means putting citizens first. It means enforcing immigration law without apology. It means ending the deadly experiment of sanctuary cities and catch-and-release. Enough is enough.
These tragedies do not have to keep happening. The choice is clear: secure the border, deport the criminals, and stop sacrificing American lives on the altar of globalist virtue signaling.
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You have rabid dogs killing on the street. You have to arm yourself. They pull a knife you don’t have a choice. Shoot. They approach you on a subway platform. You don’t have a choice. Shoot.