Anthony Jimenez, Hero

Jimenez is not an unusual name and I would never have noticed that the son of my good friend, Rosanna, was a hero if Father Byrne hadn't mentioned it at Sunday Mass. Anthony Jimenez wrestled down the berserk Akeem Capers who was trying to push him off the subway platform at the 59th Street IND station. The police wanted Mr. Capers for murdering his grandmother and sexually assaulting her neighbor in Clinton Hill last Thursday. Thanks to Anthony's action, the police were able to capture the mentally ill Capers, who screamed "I am Jesus" before being taken to Bellevue Hospital for observation. I spoke to Anthony on the steps outside Immaculate Conception in Staten Island where he attends weekly mass. The 20-year-old is a modest young man who seemed oblivious to the attention being paid to him by the parishioners alerted of his heroism by Father Byrnes's announcement. He shyly but graciously filled me in on what happened Friday afternoon at around 12:45 p.m. Anthony was on his way to his company's softball game in Central Park. He is studying Public Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and works part-time for Equinox Health Club. He was walking toward the rear of the platform when he heard shouts of "Help, help. He's in the tracks." Mr. Capers had already tossed a 34-year-old man onto the tracks. Mr. Capers then came up to Anthony asked to see his bat, and tried to grab it out of his gym bag. Anthony held on and wrestled with the heavier and taller man, who was trying to push him onto the tracks. He managed to hold him against the wall until plainclothes detectives, alerted by station cleaner Tom Reala, arrived on the scene. Although Anthony says he fought for only a few minutes before the police arrived, those minutes were fraught with danger. Imagine the damage Mr. Capers could have wreaked had he succeeded in wresting that bat away from Anthony. I managed to contact my friend, Rosanna, before she set out for a family trip to the park. A Senior Planning Analyst for Con Edison, Rosanna Jimenez is a devout Catholic who devotes much of her spare time to church activities involving the youth of the community. She escorts them on trips to Washington for the annual pro-life march. She's taken them to Papal Youth Fairs in various cities. I always marvel at her tireless energy and commitment to the welfare of the youth of our parish. Her son was unable to contact her from the police station where he was taken after the incident. Anthony's girlfriend contacted Mrs. Jimenez, but all she knew before she arrived at the station was that there had been a fight on the subway and her son was being held there. At first, she thought the police were holding others in the station as witnesses. "I can't explain it, but even though I was anxious when I got the call I also had this strong sense of inner peace. I knew that he was all right. It was a weird sensation." Her first reaction when she learned of her son's close escape was that God is good. She felt blessed that God protected him. In fact, Rosanna told me that one of the first things that the police lieutenant told her was, "Your son was protected. He must have had a guardian angel." As she learned the details of the assault and about the manhunt for Mr. Capers, her feelings of gratitude and wonderment only grew. Mr. Capers is apparently 6 feet tall and weighs about 235 pounds. Anthony weighs between 140 and 150 pounds and yet managed to hold off his crazed assailant. He told his mother that, as he realized that Mr. Capers was trying to push him off the track, he used the momentum of the heavier man to swing away from the track. He also told Mr. Capers that if he were planning to knock him over the edge, Anthony was going to take him with him. Rosanna said the police told her that her son was a hero. Channel 2 news came to her house to interview her, and another news station mentioned that he might be up for some kind of award by the mayor. That her son is safe is reward enough for her, she says. All she feels right now is happiness and gratitude. "Praise God, praise God," she kept saying to me over and over. Friends have been telling her that a mother's prayers are very strong. "No matter how old your children are, keep praying for them because it protects them." If it can be said that one obtains grace by performing good, then Rosanna has built up quite a supply. That grace kicked in on Friday.