Psychiatric test for suspect in subway shoving death - Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic

As friends say goodbye to Sunando Sen, more details are being revealed out about the woman accused of pushing him to his death. 

Erika Menendez was arraigned on murder charges for allegedly shoving Sen to his death on the subway tracks. She will undergo a court ordered psychiatric examination and Fox 5 has learned this wasn't her first time going through the system. 

The 31-year-old Menendez was led out in handcuffs for arraignment on a charge of Second Degree Murder as a Hate Crime. Prosecutors say she targeted 46-year-old Sunando Sen, explaining it like this: "I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I've been beating them up."   

At the Rego Park apartment complex where she lives with her mother and her stepfather, neighbors, who include Muslims and Hindus, are relieved she's behind bars. 

"Now you don't feel safe even waiting on the train station you know?" said one neighbor. "So, I don't know, I'm kind of speechless and worried that – yeah, to discover that she lived in the building." 

Sources tell Fox 5 that in the past, police were called to the apartment by family members who could not control her after she went off her medication and that she has a history of unprovoked attacks that resulted in at least two assault charges. In one incident, Fox 5 has learned she punched a man in the face while he was mowing his lawn. 

"We have everybody here (in the community) and it's really nice – but it's really sad," added another resident.

Fox 5 has learned that Menendez' troubled past included arrests for cocaine possession and using a stolen credit card. She's being held without bail, and will be back in court January 14. That's when a judge will review the findings of the psychiatric examination.