http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20611140
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/...h-photo-emerge/

A New York Post photographer has hit back against critics over pictures he took of a man moments from death on a subway track.

Freelancer R Umar Abbasi said in a media interview that he had used his camera flash to alert the train driver, rather than to snap photos.

The tabloid's front-page story, headlined This Man Is About To Die, has triggered fierce ethical debate.

Ki-Suck Han died on Monday after being shoved by a stranger on to the track.

A suspect arrested over the death at 49th Street station near Times Square is still being questioned by NYPD a day after his arrest.

'Sickening'
Abbasi said on Wednesday he is shocked that people closer to the victim did not try to help in the 22 seconds before the train struck.

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Start Quote

I can't let the armchair critics bother me - they have no idea how very quickly it happened”

R Umar Abbasi
Freelance photographer
"It took me a second to figure out what was happening," he told NBC's Today programme. "I saw the lights in the distance. My mind was to alert the train."

"The people who were standing close to him... they could have moved and grabbed him and pulled him up. No-one made an effort," he added.

His picture, which featured on Tuesday's front page, has prompted an online backlash and a media debate.

"The treatment of the photo was driven by a moral and commercial calculus that was sickening to behold," wrote a commentator for the New York Times.

Wednesday's edition of the New York Post carried a front-page article headlined My Snap Decision, in which Abbasi describes what happened.

He is quoted as saying: "I just started running. I had my camera up - it wasn't even set to the right settings - and I just kept shooting and flashing, hoping the train driver would see something and be able to stop."

He added: "At the same time, the perp was running toward me. I was afraid he might push me onto the tracks."

Abbasi says the victim did not scream or cry out for help, which haunts him.

"I can't let the armchair critics bother me," he continues. "They were not there. They have no idea how very quickly it happened."

Police say the suspect in custody has implicated himself in the death.

Witnesses say they saw an assailant talking to himself before he approached Mr Han, 58, on the platform and shoved him into the train's path following an argument.

wat shud he do??

lol... What was he supposed to do? Stop the train like the way Superman did?

> Queens

Must be KFC.

Gantz

22seconds, is not enuf. I would take about 10 sec to digest what happen, and another 10 seconds thinking wtf should i do.. wtf should i do.

Things like this people get schock n dunno how to react immediately.

According to news, the guy was on the track for 1 minute, enough to save the guy.

I question his act of selling photo to NY Post.

This post has been edited by Kampung2005: Dec 6 2012, 01:03 AM

almost same case with the photographer who snapped the african boy picture


inb4 implying all photographers are shit. ohwai..

22 seconds.

fuhhhh..gantz..

I'm gonna wait by the lrt for a money making shot.

later will he suicide like the photographer who took photo of african child about to be eaten by eagle?

u didnt mention about the train and the driver

There is no way you can stop a 5-car train at such distance.

if the guy was on the track for 1 minute.. its enough time to save himself

KOREANS... THEY PUSH PEOPLE OFF THE TRACK...

If only

22 sec is enough la.. but no one offer for help.. pity that fella.. RIP..

So that guy sold the photo? Sick...

Even more terrible is that no one at the scene helped him.

I used to live in Queens, and yes there is kfc

If you were there, u think 22 seconds is enuf?