Multiple people shot at Brooklyn subway station
By Michael Gold, Ashley Southall and Andy Newman
NEW YORK — Multiple people were shot in the subway system in Brooklyn during the Tuesday (12) morning rush, officials said, a violent episode that came amid fears about public safety as New York City struggles to recover from the pandemic.
Police officers were called to the 36th Street station, where the D, N and R lines pass through the Sunset Park neighbourhood, around 8:30 a.m., the Police Department said. The Fire Department said that 13 people were injured, several by gunfire. Police officials said that preliminary reports suggested that five people were shot.
A senior law enforcement official said that police were seeking a heavyset man with a gas mask and an orange construction vest who had been wearing a dark blue outfit that appeared to resemble that of a transit worker.
The official said that investigators believed that a smoke bomb went off and that the gunman had shot from inside a subway train. Videos posted on social media showed panicked riders pouring from a train and onto a platform at 36th Street as smoke billowed through the station.
A Police Department spokesperson said that no active explosive devices had been found at the scene. The area around the station was surrounded by investigators and cordoned off.
On Fourth Avenue near 35th Street, dozens of police vehicles with flashing lights stretched down at least four blocks. Officers blocked traffic as residents stood in small groups huddled on the sidewalk, seeking cover from the rain. At least two helicopters flew overhead.
Rows of reporters and emergency responders waited against crime-scene tape, and three police officers stood posted outside Sunset Park High School.
“We saw an ambulance coming out with a stretcher with a person on it,” said Silvana Guerrero, 20, who works at nearby Sunset Bagels Cafe & Grill. “Their leg was injured — I’m not sure exactly what went on or what was going on. And then, we saw after that, two ambulances coming out, with two people, like, hopping on one leg.”
President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting, officials said. Mayor Eric Adams, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, was also monitoring the situation.
Eight people with injuries from the shooting were being treated at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, said a spokesperson for the hospital system, Lisa Greiner. Their injuries included gunshot wounds and smoke inhalation; all eight were in stable condition.
Shootings in New York City have risen this year, and the uptick in violent gun crime has been a central focus for Adams since he took office in January. Through April 3, shooting incidents rose to 296 from 260 during the same period last year, according to Police Department statistics.
The increase comes after gun violence hit historic lows in 2018 and 2019, and the city still remains safer than in previous years. But as New Yorkers emerged from the shutdowns that marked the start of the pandemic, many found the city more dangerous than it was when the pandemic swept across New York in the spring of 2020.
Adams, a former police officer, has sought to reassure residents and has made tackling gun crime a central focus of his administration. He recently deployed seven new anti-gun police units, and last month, the Police Department began to enforce so-called quality-of-life matters, recalling the city’s embrace of “broken windows” policing — the stricter enforcement of low-level offenses in an effort to prevent more serious crimes.
The mayor has taken a similar approach in the subway system, where transit leaders had for months before his tenure been seeking more help in policing trains and stations.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the system, has said that fears over safety have diminished confidence and kept riders off the subway, which is considered a lifeblood of the city and a key to its economic recovery.
Transit officials suspended service on the B and W lines and parts of the D, N and R lines because of the investigation. The transportation authority said no additional details were immediately available. The Police Department said it had offers inspecting all stations and trains as part of its investigation.
Several schools near the scene of the shooting were told to “shelter in place”, or close their doors and prevent outside visitors, according to a spokesperson for the Education Department.
-New York Times