New York City subway shooting suspect sought, vehicle found after 10 wounded in train attack
A gunman in a gas mask and a construction vest set off a smoke canister on a rush-hour subway train in Brooklyn and shot at least 10 people on Tuesday, authorities said. Police were scouring the city for the shooter and a rental truck.
A scene of horror unfolded as frightened commuters ran from the train as others limped out of it. At least one collapsed on the platform.
“My subway door opened into calamity. It was smoke and blood and people screaming,” eyewitness Sam Carcamo told radio station 1010 WINS. Smoke poured out of the train car as the door opened, he added.
Five people were in critical condition but expected to survive. At least 29 in all were treated in hospital for gunshot wounds, smoke inhalation and other conditions.
The gunfire erupted on a subway train that pulled into a station in the Sunset Park neighbourhood, about a 15-minute train ride from Manhattan and predominantly home to Hispanic and Asian communities.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the attack was not being investigated as terrorism but added that she was “not ruling out anything.”
Photo of suspect
Authorities gave officers a photo they believed to depict the gunman, as well as the Arizona licence plate number of a U-Haul van to look out for, two law enforcement officials said. By early evening, police found a matching, unoccupied U-Haul van in Brooklyn, one of the officials said.
Police were closing off a street about six kilometres from the shooting scene and clearing nearby businesses while awaiting a bomb squad and the highly specialized emergency services unit.
Investigators found a credit card at the scene of Tuesday’s shooting that led them to identify a person of interest, one of the law enforcement officials said, adding that the credit card was used to rent the U-Haul van that police located in Brooklyn. The two officials were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Investigators also recovered a handgun at the scene, along with multiple smoke devices and other items they are analyzing, the officials said. They said the suspect is believed to have had at least two extended magazines.
Officials believe the weapon jammed, preventing the suspect from continuing to fire. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has completed an urgent trace to identify the gun’s manufacturer, seller and initial owner.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition on anonymity.
‘It has to end,’ says governor
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who encouraged witnesses to come forward, described the suspect as “cold-hearted” and “depraved.”
“No more mass shootings. No more disrupting lives. No more creating heartbreak for people just trying to live their lives … it has to end,” she said.
Witnesses describe chaos, smoke
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced last fall that it had put security cameras in all 472 subway stations citywide, saying they would put criminals on an “express track to justice.” But the cameras apparently malfunctioned in the station where the train arrived, New York Mayor Eric Adams told WCBS-AM.
One train rider’s video shows smoke and people pouring out of a subway car. Wails erupt as passengers run for an exit as a few others limp off the train. One falls to the platform, and a person hollers, “Someone call 911!” In other video and photos from the scene, people tend to bloodied passengers lying on the platform, some amid what appear to be small puddles of blood, and another person is on the floor of a subway car.
Danny Mastrogiorgio of Brooklyn had just dropped off his son at school when he saw a crush of passengers, including multiple wounded, running up the subway stairway at the 25th Street station in panic. At least two had visible leg injuries, he said.
“It was insane,” he told The Associated Press. “No one knew exactly what was going on.”
Police officers were canvassing Fourth Avenue, the station’s cross-street, asking witnesses whether they were on the train. A sea of emergency lights was visible from at least a dozen blocks away, where a police cordon was set up.
Some of those not shot but injured may have suffered smoke inhalation, officials said, as it was believed the suspect threw a gas cannister before opening fire in the incident, which occurred at about 8:25 a.m.
Fire and police officials were investigating early reports that there had been an explosion, but Sewell said that there were no known explosive devices.
Recent attacks on subway system
Following the shooting, local schools, including Sunset Park High School across the street, were locked down.
Some shuttle buses were put into service as a result of subway disruptions.
Janno Lieber, chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, praised New Yorkers in the vicinity of the attack for “stepping up” to help out injured and shaken passengers.
No MTA workers were physically hurt, according to a statement from the Transport Workers Union Local 100.
We need the public’s help apprehending the individual responsible for shooting multiple people today on the subway in <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brooklyn?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Brooklyn</a>. The suspect is a Black male, who was wearing a green construction vest & a gray hooded sweatshirt. Call <a href=”https://twitter.com/NYPDTips?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@NYPDTips</a> at <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/800577TIPS?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#800577TIPS</a> with any information. <a href=”https://t.co/d2wTfNbMDD”>pic.twitter.com/d2wTfNbMDD</a>
—@NYPDPC
The New York City subway system has seen a spate of recent attacks. An Asian-American woman was pushed to her death in front of a train at the Times Square subway station in January, while a Staten Island man died last week after a stabbing at Wall Street station.
“I’m committing the full resources of our state to fight this surge of crime, this insanity that is seizing our city because we want to get back to normal,” Hochul said.
“This is what the mayor and I are going to continue to work for.”
Following a 2017 incident that caused panic at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan, a U.S. permanent resident from Bangladesh was sentenced on federal charges last year to life in prison. The man detonated an improvised explosive device, leading to non-life-threatening injuries for several people nearby.