Police identify ‘person of interest’ in New York City subway shooting
New York City police say they are looking for a 62-year-old man in connection to a shooting in a Brooklyn subway station this morning which left dozens injured, including 10 people who were shot.
Investigators say a gunman in a gas mask and a construction vest set off a smoke canister on a rush-hour subway train in Brooklyn and opened fire at 8:23 a.m. on Tuesday, firing 33 times. Police were scouring the city for the shooter after locating a rental truck connected to the crime scene.
“At this time, we still do not know the suspect’s motivation, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell told reporters at an evening briefing. “Clearly the individual boarded the train and was intent on violence.”
Along with the 10 people shot, another 13 were hurt either as they rushed to get out of the station or suffered smoke inhalation. None of the injuries is considered life threatening.
The frightening situation 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.
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.
Sewell earlier 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 the matching, unoccupied U-Haul van in Brooklyn, one of the officials said. Members of the bomb squad were called in to search it.
Investigators say a credit card found at the scene of Tuesday’s shooting led them to identify the 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.
Investigators also recovered a handgun at the scene, identified during the briefing as a nine-millimetre semi-automatic handgun, along with multiple smoke devices and a hatchet. 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.
Governor of New York Kathy Hochul called for an end to mass shootings after a gunman opened fire in a Brooklyn subway station Tuesday morning, injuring several people. ‘I am committing the full resources of our state to fight this scourge of crime,’ she said. 1:17
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.
Fire and police officials had investigated early reports that there had been an explosion, but Sewell said that there were no known explosive devices.
Recent attacks on subway system
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.