An 18-year-old man was charged Thursday with manslaughter in the death of a 65-year-old man who died after he was punched in a Brooklyn subway station and fell onto the tracks, the authorities said.

The police arrested the teenager, Edward Cordero, in the Jay Street-Metro Tech station soon after the attack on Wednesday afternoon and interviewed him into the evening. On Thursday afternoon, the police announced that Mr. Cordero had been charged with two counts of manslaughter and one count of assault, all felonies.

Mr. Cordero was ranting incoherently about the devil and other topics in the subway station around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday when he went up to Jacinto Suarez, who was standing on the platform and waiting for an R train, the police said. Mr. Suarez shooed him away, they said, but Mr. Cordero returned and punched him.

Mr. Suarez tumbled off the platform and onto the tracks. Bystanders jumped down and pulled him off the tracks, while another person found a police officer in the station. Mr. Suarez did not touch the electrified third rail and no train was nearby, but he later died at Brooklyn Hospital Center, the police said.