The image taken just seconds before a man was killed by a subway train has sparked a national debate on what someone should do in a moment of life-and-death panic. INSIDE EDITION viewers weigh in.
Debate is raging over that controversial photo of a doomed subway passenger about to be mowed down by a train.
The big question—Why didn't anyone help the victim climb to safety?
Wesley Autrey could give lessons in heroism.
He was hailed as a Superman after he threw himself on top of a passenger who had fallen onto the tracks in a New York City subway in 2007. A train passed right over the two of them but left them unscathed.
“Maybe if they had done something, this man would be alive today. Those individuals who chose not to do nothing, I just don't get it?,” said Autrey.
Autrey said, like the rest of America, he was startled to see the photo.
Matt Lauer grilled the freelance photographer who took the photos of the victim, who had been pushed onto the tracks during a dispute with another passenger.
Lauer asked, "Don't you think you or someone else could have gotten on the tracks and helped this poor man?"
When INSIDE EDITION’s Megan Alexander brought the photographer, Umar Abbasi, back to the subway platform, he told Alexander he was just too far away.
Abbasi said there were passengers much closer to the man than he was who could have come and helped the man before the train ran over him.
“There was a big gasp from the crowd,” he said.
Abbasi also said he used his camera flash to alert the motorman. He told Alexander how the doomed man tried to protect himself from the oncoming train.
58-year-old Ki Suk Han died from his injuries.
Now, there's a fierce national debate over what people should do in a situation like this.
One subway passenger told INSIDE EDITION, "You like to think you would help, but, you never know what is going to happen.
Another said, "It is normal reaction to go and grab the guy and try and pull him out."
"I am disappointed that their instinct wasn't to run and grab that mans hand," said another passenger.
INSIDE EDITION’s Facebook page lit up with reaction.
"Go help him!" one viewer wrote.
"I would do my best to make sure the pusher didn't get away," said another.
In a poll, INSIDE EDITION asked, “What would you have done if you were the photographer?”
91% said they would drop the camera and try to rescue the victim.
Meanwhile, police have charged Naeem Davis, a homeless drifter, with murder. He was videotaped arguing with the victim just before he allegedly pushed him onto the tracks.
The suspect had reportedly shaved his head to avoid being identified. Cops say he has confessed to shoving the victim.
