A Maryland man was sentenced this week after pushing another man off a subway platform and onto the tracks’ electrified third rail, electrocuting him.
Joseph White, 41, learned his fate on Thursday after Christopher Foster, 28, died, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan J. Bates said in a press release. White was found guilty of second-degree murder and received the maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
“This horrific and shocking act demands the absolute severest consequences,” according to Bates. “In a callous act of violence, the defendant pushed the victim not once, but twice, causing him to tragically fall from the subway station platform and die.
It’s difficult to imagine the anguish of a family waiting for a loved one who will never return as a result of such senseless brutality. My heart goes out to Mr. Foster’s family as they deal with this profound and unbearable loss.
Foster was killed on April 12, 2023. That day, Baltimore police homicide detectives were dispatched to the Shot Tower subway station, located at 729 E. Baltimore Street, to investigate a person on the tracks.
Detectives quickly determined that Foster had been pushed onto the tracks and electrocuted. Police said the victim was standing near the platform’s edge when a man pushed him from behind, causing him to fall onto the tracks before fleeing.
Before an arrest was made, the victim’s mother, Carole Fields, expressed her rage.
“I was so angry that someone played God with my son’s life,” she told the local Fox affiliate, WBFF. “I want to see that person caught and held accountable for his actions. “I want him to pay for what he did.”
Investigators linked White to the crime after seeing video footage of him pushing the victim twice, causing him to fall onto the tracks and make contact with the third rail, prosecutors said.
According to the Baltimore Police Department, officers apprehended White at a New York City hotel the following month.
He testified during the trial about an argument that occurred prior to the push.
“I don’t remember a second push,” White told the jury, according to the Baltimore Witness. “I’m feeling so much panic and fear [that] I reacted.”
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