New Jersey man and woman sat on NYC subway tracks together. Then a train ran over them:’Grew up in the same world’

Two 24-year-olds from New Jersey died after a subway train hit them at a Manhattan station in the early hours of Sunday. Authorities identified them as Navam Kaul, who lived in Sayreville, and Malaika Chitre, who lived in Dayton.

Around 3:14 a.m. on Sept. 13, the New York Police Department said officers went to the Spring Street station after reports that two people needed help. They said they found Kaul and Chitre on the roadbed after a southbound 4 train had struck them. Rescue workers arrived right away, and both were pronounced dead there.

Both had reportedly graduated from Rutgers University. LinkedIn profiles listed Chitre as an operations specialist at Acadia Pharmaceuticals and Kaul as a financial data analyst at Bloomberg, People reports.

One person appeared to fall before the other went down to help, an MTA report alleged

An MTA report, cited by New York Daily News, alleged that one of the two appeared to have fallen onto the tracks and that the other then jumped down to help. Law-enforcement sources told the New York Post that Kaul either fell or made his way onto the tracks and that Chitre followed him down.

Those sources said Chitre appeared to pull Kaul toward her just before the train struck them near 3:15 a.m. Track incidents can cause major disruptions, such as when an Amtrak train incident disrupted Penn Station service for New Jersey commuters. The train operator told supervisors she “saw a man and woman sitting on the track” and that there was not enough time to stop, according to an account of the incident report.

Sources said the operator also told supervisors that Chitre appeared to be laughing while pulling Kaul. The incident highlights how public confrontations are often captured on video, such as when an 80-year-old woman was blocked from going upstairs at a train station. Social media videos showed the two sitting on the tracks shortly before the train reached them. The Daily News reported that about 100 passengers were later taken off the train.

Sources said investigators were examining whether one or both were so intoxicated they failed to grasp the danger until it was too late. The sources said no suicide notes were found, though that explanation has not been ruled out. The medical examiner’s office did not comment on the cause of death.

Rajnikant Pipalia, whose child is a friend of Kaul’s, told the New York Post, “They grew up in the same world.” She also said, “They’re all part of the same friends circle, the same South Asian group hanging out together, enjoying the same festivals.” Pipalia added, “They all did college very well, studied, moved on to Fortune 500 companies,” and said of Kaul, “There is nothing in his life that would make him do anything stupid.”

Police said they are still investigating how the two ended up on the tracks and how they died.