MTA Worker Describes Subway Bombing
Sean Monroe (Photo courtesy of Gabriella Bass)
Resilient is a word used often to describe New Yorkers. This was once again the case after a terrorist failed to get the impact he desired when he set off a self worn & made homemade bomb Monday morning at the 42nd Street-Port Authority subway station.
On this morning, a particular MTA employee put the well being of riders in front of his own when he helped guide passengers out of the station after the bomb went off. The hero I am referencing is 32 year old Sean Monroe, an MTA employee for just over one year. Danielle Furfaro & Natalie Musumeci of the New York Post have more:
A subway station cleaner who was there when a would-be suicide bomber detonated his pipe bomb in a passageway full of people described the moment the explosion happened.
Sean Monroe, 32, was on his way – broom and dust pan in hand – to clean up a spill in an MTA hallway near the Port Authority Bus Terminal and had just turned a corner when he suddenly saw a man explode.
“I looked that way, and the next thing I know I saw the explosion. The guy just went boom,” Monroe, 32, who has worked for the agency since Oct. of last year, recalled. “The people around [the bomber] fell to the floor. As soon as they fell, they got back up and started running.”
The cleaner said the noise was terrifying and very loud. His ears started ringing immediately.
“It was extremely scary,” he said. “You start to panic for a second, but when you see all those people you know getting up and rushing, your first instinct, especially with your training from MTA, your first instinct is to let me direct these people out of here as far away from the situation as possible.”
That’s when Monroe kicked into gear, directed those fleeing to the nearest exit.
“I pointed my arm out to the right and directed them to the right because that was the nearest exit from the station. I knew they were all about to scatter, so I directed them one way,” Monroe said.
Alleged bomber Akayed Ullah, 27, detonated the explosive device during the morning rush inside the subway passageway linking the Times Square and Port Authority subway stations.
Click here for the complete report.
Let me give the highest praise to Sean for a job well done in putting the life of straphangers in front of his own. I am glad that you were there to help out & I wish you nothing the best from here on out!
xoxo Transit Blogger
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