Ready, Willing & Able | The Doe Fund

The investigation was begun at the request of George McDonald, an advocate for the homeless, who maintains that police ignored the pleas of Mama's friends on behalf of the woman.

A Metro-North spokesman, denying that police acted improperly, said the railroad will cooperate with the investigation.

"We conducted an investigation and were never able to develop any evidence whatsoever that a request for assistance was made," the spokesman said.

Mama, a woman whose name was unknown, had lived in the waiting room of Grand Central for at least a year. She took ill on Christmas Eve and was found dead on a bench the next day.

Manuel Rosario, 33, a homeless friend of the woman, said he and another friend, Forrest Sheridan, had asked a Metro-North officer at different times during the night to call an ambulance.

Rosario said the cop told him to "get out of here."

A medical examiner's report attributed death to pneumonia and pulmonary emphysema.