‘She died trying to protect her baby.’ Mom fell down NY subway as she held 1-year-old

When Dontaysia Turner thinks of her cousin Malaysia Goodson, who died Monday after falling down stairs at a New York City subway station, her 1-year-old daughter comes to mind.

“Everything she did,” Turner told amNY, “she did for Rhylee.”

Goodson’s family is mourning her passing after the New York Police Department says 22-year-old Goodson died around 8 p.m. Monday. She was carrying her daughter Rhylee and her stroller in the Manhattan station when she plunged to her death, according to NBC.

While the mom was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, her daughter escaped in “good condition,” according to WPIX11. Police say the woman “apparently shielded the stroller as she crashed to the bottom of the last flight of stairs.”

Dieshe Goodson said his sister’s last-ditch attempt to keep Rhylee safe shows the type of person she was.

“You could tell she was very protective,” Dieshe Goodson told WPIX11. “She died trying to protect her baby.”

A GoFundMe page has been created to help cover the cost of schooling for the young girl. By Wednesday morning, the page raised nearly $10,000 — far more than the original goal of $100.

Police told The New York Daily News that while the investigation is “still very preliminary,” they are looking at whether a medical emergency caused Malaysia Goodson to fall to her death.

“We’ll have to look at video,” a police source said, according to The New York Daily News. “It looks like the woman was holding the baby in her arms and then carrying a stroller. The stroller was found toppled over next to her at the bottom of the stairs.”

Police say a video recording from inside the subway station showed the mother “wasn’t pushed,” according to CBS.

“At this point, I don’t even know, I’m just in shock,” Tamika Goodson, the woman’s mother, told NBC. “I don’t know which way to go.”

Malaysia Goodson’s death has sparked debate over just how accessible the New York subway stations are. As noted by CBS, 354 of the 472 subway stations in the city do not have elevators. That means just 25 percent of stations in the city do.

“The lack of accessibility in our subways is literally killing people,” Corey Johnson, speaker of the New York City Council, wrote on Twitter. “I am heartbroken by this tragedy and am keeping this family in my thoughts. NYC must do more for families and the disabled.”

The subway station where Malaysia Goodson fell “has no elevator,” WPIX11 reported, “and its only escalators are set to go up almost all of the time.”

“This is a heartbreaking tragedy that never should have happened,” Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote on Twitter. “The subway system is not accessible for everyone and that’s an environment the MTA should not allow.”

Other subway riders agreed that more accommodations should be made to protect residents.