January 05, 2024
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Chaz Wearing, 40, is charged with involuntary manslaughter for the death of the man struck by a Market-Frankford subway train on Thursday after he fell onto the tracks during a fight inside SEPTA's 34th Street station in Philadelphia. The name of the person who died has not been released yet.
Police identified the person arrested in connection with the death of a man struck by a Market-Frankford subway train on Thursday after he fell onto the tracks during a fight inside SEPTA's 34th Street station.
SEPTA Police said on Friday that Chaz Wearing, 40, was apprehended shortly after the train struck and killed the other man involved in the fight. Wearing, who is homeless, had fled the station and was caught by transit police near 40th and Market streets in West Philly a short time later. The name of the person who died has not been released yet.
Graphic video posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday evening shows two men fighting on the eastbound platform at 34th Street station in University City. The altercation occurred around 4:30 p.m.
In the video, the man identified as Wearing is backed up against a stainless steel pillar on the train platform and appears to be held there by the other man who ultimately was struck by the train. The unidentified man, dressed in jeans, a gray winter coat and gray knit hat seems to be yelling at Wearing and threatening to hit him.
Then Wearing frees his left arm and throws two punches, hitting the man in the knit hat in the head and sending him tumbling over the edge of the platform, onto the subway tracks right before the SEPTA train arrives, resulting in shrieks and screams from onlookers. The man hit by the train was dead when medics arrived.
SEPTA stopped all Market-Frankford trains between 30th and 40th streets, in both directions, for almost 3 hours while police investigated.
Wearing is charged with involuntary manslaughter.
PhillyVoice staff writer Michael Tanenbaum contributed reporting to this story.
