Maniac Released From Psych Ward Hours Before He Pushed Elderly Teacher to His Death in Subway: Cops

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Rhamell Burke — a 32-year-old serial troublemaker who has been arrested four times since February — mysteriously walked free from Bellevue Hospital about an hour after cops cuffed him and checked him in as an “emotionally disturbed person” around 3:30 p.m. Thursday, according to police.

The violent brute was released around 4:40 p.m. — and launched his fatal attack on 76-year-old stranger Ross Falzone, who worked as a teacher, at a Chelsea subway station about five hours later, while still sporting his hospital bracelet.

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Police said Burke was hauled to Bellevue after “acting erratically” outside the NYPD’s 17th Precinct station house just before 3:30 p.m. and wielding a stick he had grabbed out of a garbage container.

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The crazed suspect was then taken to the Manhattan medical center as an “emotionally disturbed person,” police said, then shuffled through triage and into the hospital’s Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program before being released around 4:40 p.m.

Around 9:30 p.m., Burke — seen in a surveillance image obtained by The Post — allegedly hurled Falzone, a high school teacher who lived an active life and enjoyed the symphony, down the steps leading to the No. 1 train station at West 18th Street and 7th Avenue in Chelsea.

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Falzone landed on his head about halfway down the stairs and suffered a traumatic brain injury, right rib fracture and spinal fracture, cops said.

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Mamdani called on Bellevue to probe the circumstances behind Burke’s evaluation and abrupt release.

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He was busted three times in February — on Feb. 2 for allegedly assaulting a Port Authority police officer, again on Feb. 14 for burglary, and on Feb. 25 for resisting arrest.

The perp was then hauled in again on April 2 for allegedly assaulting a stranger. He was later granted supervised release at arraignment.

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Ross Falzone