Homeless man arrested, charged in train death of elderly S.F. woman

July 3 (UPI) -- San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced charges Wednesday against a homeless man accused of pushing a 74-year-old Asian woman into the path of a moving train Monday night.

Trevor Belmont, 49, was arrested by Bay Area Rapid Transit police shortly after he allegedly pushed Corazon Dandan into an oncoming train at 11:06 p.m. PDT Monday at the BART Powell Street Station.

Dandan hit her head against the train and fell onto the platform.

Paramedics took her to San Francisco General Hospital for medical treatment where she died.

Belmont was charged Wednesday with one count of murder in a complaint that accuses him of causing great bodily inure to a vulnerable victim.

Jenkins described the crime as "tragic and truly shocking."

"Unprovoked attacks, especially on our most vulnerable, are unacceptable and will not be tolerated," he said in a statement .

Belmont is scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Friday. The district attorney's office said it is seeking for him to be detained pending trial due to "the public safety risk he poses."

Dandan had completed her shift as a telephone operator at the Westin St. Francis Hotel at Union Square in San Francisco and was waiting for her train to ride home to Daly City when she was shoved.

BART police said in a statement that officers quickly apprehended Belmont, who was booked on murder and elder abuse charges Tuesday morning.

Dandan was a "brave, independent woman" who grew up in the Philippines and moved by herself to the United States in the 1980s, her nephew, Dr. Alvin Dandan, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

He said she was married briefly, remained single afterward and was very generous and kind to her nieces and nephews.

"She put me through medical school," Alvin, an intensive care doctor in Illinois, said.

He said she often traveled overseas and was building a lakeside vacation home in the Philippines.

Corazon worked at the Westin St. Francis for more than 40 years, was a "cherished employee" and "will always be remembered fondly by her St. Francis family," hotel general manager Clif Clark told the Chronicle.

BART police said the alleged murder is the first this year on the public transit system and they don't know the motive.