Almost ten years before she allegedly pushed a man to his death under a 7 train in Queens, Erika Menendez reportedly assaulted a former FDNY battalion chief, scratching his face in one of what police think might have been a number of past assaults. Unsurprisingly, The Times reports, she has a history of mental illness and has been “in and out of institutions” for years. She’s also been arrested eight times, including for the 2003 attack on former chief Daniel Conlisk, which sounds absolutely bonkers.
“I was going out with the recyclables. It was dark out. Then this girl was standing there in front of me. She was shouting, ‘You f—ed my mother!’’ ” Conlisk told the Daily News. “She started charging at me. She started clawing me in the face. I was trying to get away from her.” Eventually Conlisk, covered in blood, got into his house and called the police. “When cops arrived, Menendez returned to the scene, screaming that Conlisk had ‘stole my rings in high school.’” Prosecutors are charging Menendez with a hate crime for pushing 46-year-old Indian immigrant Sunando Sen to his death. She reportedly told detectives she hated Muslims and Hindus, saying, “ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers, I’ve been beating them up.”
