Victim of fatal NYC subway shove was ‘honest and sincere person,’ neighbor says

The straphanger who was shoved to his death in a random attack at an East Harlem subway station was a “compassionate” and “generous to a fault,” his family told The Post this week.

Jason Volz, 54, who remained in the Big Apple after the rest of his family moved to Florida last year, had been working as a carpenter when he was killed Monday evening, his uncle, Eddie Volz, said on Wednesday.

“He had a very big heart and was a very compassionate person, especially when it came to helping other people,” he said. “He would give his time and help people.”

Volz was also a friendly and courteous tenant at the Bronx apartment building where locals said he lived with his brother and ailing father, according to one neighbor, who said he bumped into the victim just hours before his death.

“It hurts. I’m feeling so devastated,” said building tenant Sammy Sanchez. “He’s an upstanding citizen. Nice guy. He held the door for me when I came up the stairs with my wife. Every time we see each other we say, ‘Hi.’ He never did anything wrong.”

Sanchez, a 58-year-old disabled veteran, said Volz moved in four years ago and ran his own business.

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“For that to happen it takes my soul way, for it to happen just like that,” he said. “I just felt so heartbroken because I knew this gentleman. For somebody to do that, it just felt so cold and calculated.

“I woke up in the early morning, 6 o’clock,” Sanchez added. “And he left. And that’s kind of funny, because he’s not going to be around anymore.”

Volz was at the East 125th Street and Lexington Avenue station shortly before 7 p.m. Monday when he was shoved in front of an incoming No. 4 train and struck, cops said.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police arrested 24-year-old Carlton McPherson , a deranged career criminal with a history of erratic behavior, and charged him with murder in the attack.

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McPherson flashed a sinister smile as he was led out of an East Harlem police precinct Tuesday and headed to court, where he is awaiting arraignment on the charges.

The accused killer, who his family said suffers from bipolar disorder, has eight arrests on his rap sheet, four of them since sealed, according to law enforcement sources.

McPherson was arraigned on a second-degree murder charge in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday night and ordered held without bail pending a return court appearance on Friday.

In court, he appeared disoriented — with Judge Rachel Pauley forced to briefly pause the proceedings when McPherson began making unintelligible noises in the courtroom.

Among those in the audience were the accused killer’s family.

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“We are sending our condolences to the deceased’s family,” one relative said outside the courtroom. “Our prayers are with his family. Please respect our privacy at this difficult time.”

McPherson’s older brother, Daquan, told The Post in an exclusive interview Tuesday that the family had repeatedly sought help for him but were shut down — and was released from a hospital despite their pleas just two weeks before the fatal subway incident.

“The city failed Carlton,” Daquan McPherson said. “The city is failing all mentally ill people. There’s too much red tape. He just got out of the hospital two weeks ago. We begged them to keep him but they said he wasn’t a threat to himself or others so they couldn’t keep him and they let him go.

“They released him,” he said. “In New York City the mentally ill have two options — either they go to jail or do something that lands them in the newspaper.”

Meanwhile, Eddie Volz said he was also praying for McPherson and his kin.

“I don’t know why someone would get pushed in the subway unless someone has a mental health issue,” he said. “I don’t think people go fighting in the subway and tossing people in front of trains for sane reasons.”

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