Hundreds of people gathered in Times Square on Tuesday night for a mass vigil in memory of random subway-shove victim Michelle Go — including a close pal who said the slain woman loved the city.
“She loved New York. We would talk about it in the pandemic that we would rather be nowhere else,’’ said Kim Garnett, one of Go’s friends and coworkers at the powerhouse consulting firm Deloitte.
“She loved Central Park. She loved living on the Upper West Side,” Garnett said of the 40-year-old California transplant, who was killed by an alleged homeless psycho in a Times Square subway station Saturday,
“I was talking to one of my friends yesterday about what I would say about Michelle,’’ Garnett said. “The first thing that came to mind was, wow, she hated attention. And right now she’s listening and saying, ‘Is this reality. Did this happen in Times Square?’ ”
Go was remembered by another friend, Rakesh Duggal, as a travel-enthusiast who always prepared an agenda ahead of her trips.
“She loved to travel … We must have done a dozen trips together,” Duggal recalled.
“Wherever we went, Michelle always had a plan and it was often accompanied by a spreadsheet and all of the reservations.”
Professionally, Duggal said Go never shied away from tough tasks.
“She was a glass ceiling breaker. No challenge was too big or scary for her. She always wanted to work on the biggest and most challenging things,” said Duggal.
Jae McGuire, 40, of Woodside, Queens, called Go’s death “senseless violence.
“She didn’t even see her attacker. She’s standing there waiting for the train like me and what I do every day,’’ McGuire said.
“This could happen to me or any of my friends.’’
Some speakers denounced anti-Asian violence in general in the Big Apple.
The horrific incident has not been deemed a hate crime by the NYPD, but local Asian communities have noted the increase in overall attacks against members since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in 2020. Go was Asian.
The vigil, held at the Red Steps in the Crossroads of the World and organized by Asians Fighting Injustice, comes just three days after Go was pushed in front of an R train and killed at the Times Square station.
Group founder Ben Wei told The Post the group is demanding that City Hall set up an Asian-American task force to address ongoing concerns over anti-Asian violence.
Wei said he also wants the city to address the mental-health crisis in the city.
Martial Simon, the 61-year-old homeless man charged with Go’s death, was schizophrenic and had been in and out of mental hospitals for 20 years, his sister told The Post.
Go was waiting for a train around 9:40 a.m. when she shoved to her death.
It has since emerged that she had spent the past decade volunteering to help the less fortunate — including the homeless.
Some people among the throngs at the vigil held signs that read “Asian Lives Matter Just Like Yours” and “Michelle Alyssa Go RIP 1-15-2022” — the date of Go’s death.
“That could happen to anyone,” said one 24-year-old protester from Brooklyn who only identified himself as Eric. “It could happen to anyone that was Asian. That could have happened to me.”
Mayor Eric Adams, Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin and controversial new Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg also appeared at the vigil.
Adams, who faced a firestorm of controversy after Go’s death for arguing there is just a “perception of fear” on the subway, said Tuesday night that he is “recommitted to ensure that this will not happen in this city.”
“We must ensure that we have a plan of intervention and prevention,” the mayor said of addressing those suffering from mental illness on the subway system.
“My deployment of law enforcement officers with mental health professionals to identify those that are in need and give them the services immediately is what we must do right now,” Adams added.
Garnett said she had texted her friend the day before Go’s death, just about “mundane things’’ such as the weather.
“One of the things that still is hard for me to do is refer to her in the past tense,’’ the friend said.
“She traveled and took chances, and she showed me what it means to live life to the fullest.”
