Parolee who maimed ex’s legs in NYC subway shove had removed ankle monitor before attack: officials
The parolee accused of maiming an ex-lover’s legs in a Manhattan subway shove wasn’t wearing a mandated ankle monitor at the time of the attack on Saturday, officials said.
Christian Valdez, 35, had allegedly pulled off the monitor a day before the shove and hadn’t been fitted for a new one yet — but a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision told The Post “there was no gap in supervision” even at the time of horrific crime.
Parole officers had visited Valdez on Friday when they were notified the GPS monitor had been damaged — but when they got there they found the parolee needed “immediate medical attention” for an unspecified ailment, the spokesperson added.
Valdez was transported for treatment to a hospital by EMS, according to a statement.
The parole officers went back to re-attach the monitor after he told them he was out of the hospital — though it’s not clear when — and found Valdez wasn’t home, according to officials. Parole officials went to look for Valdez and later spoke with the suspect, who allegedly confessed to pushing someone onto the tracks.
The parole officers convinced Valdez to come back to New York, where the NYPD arrested the suspect at the corner of Jay and Willoughby streets in Brooklyn, according to the spokesperson.
The department said in a statement that for the brief period that Valdez did not have a GPS monitor — including while receiving medical care and upon discharge — officials actively supervised and engaged Valdez.
But a DOCCS spokesperson would not answer when asked directly what that means, instead offering details about why Valdez — who uses they/them pronouns, according to prosecutors — was free during a process that could have revoked their parole for breaking the conditions of their release.
“There was no gap in supervision; a GPS monitor would have served to provide his location at the time the crime was committed, which has been confirmed through alternative means,“ the DOCCS statement said. “The investigation into this case is ongoing.”
Valdez has since been remanded to the custody of the city’s correction department, officials said. A final parole revocation hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
Cops said Valdez got into an argument with the victim — an unidentified 29-year-old ex-beau who also uses they/them pronouns — and shoved them in front of an oncoming 3 train at the Fulton Street Station at Chambers Street at about 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Authorities rushed the victim to Bellevue Hospital, where doctors amputated the lower portions of both of the victim’s legs. The ex also suffered several rib fractures and a blood clot in their lung, according to the criminal complaint.
Valdez was arrested about 12 hours later and arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, where the accused was charged with second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault.
The disturbed suspect has been held without bail.
Valdez was out on parole after a 2020 conviction for stabbing a Bronx woman and her 4-year-old daughter three years earlier.
The attacker pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted assault and was sentenced to up to eight years in prison but was paroled from Sing Sing Correctional Facility in January 2023. That’s when DOCCS requested he be fitted with the monitor.
“I still have PTSD and my daughter still has nightmares,” the victim, Jenny Aquino, 43, told The Post of Valdez.
“I think he should be in jail forever. He needs to be somewhere put in and not come out.”
