An armed man with a gas mask and a construction vest set fire to a smoke box on a subway train at rush hour in Brooklyn and shot at least 10 people on Tuesday, authorities said. Police are searching the town for the shooter and a rental truck.
A scene of horror unfolded as frightened passengers fled the train while others limped off. At least one collapsed on the platform.
“My subway door opened in distress. There was smoke and blood and people were screaming,” eyewitness Sam Carcamo told 1010 WINS radio. Smoke billowed from the train car when the door opened, he added.
Five people are in critical condition but are expected to survive. At least 29 have been treated in hospital for gunshot wounds, smoke inhalation and other conditions.
The shooting erupted on a subway train that stopped at a station in the Sunset Park neighborhood, about a 15-minute train ride from Manhattan and home to predominantly Spanish and Asian communities.
Police Commissioner Kitchent Sewell said the attack was not being investigated as terrorism, but added that it “excludes nothing”.
In a photo provided to the Associated Press, a man received help in front of a subway car in Brooklyn on Tuesday. An armed man filled a subway train at rush hour with smoke and shot several people, leaving injured commuters bleeding on the platform while others ran screaming. (Will B. Wilde / Associated Press)
Photo of the suspect
Authorities have given officials a photo they believe depicts the shooter, as well as Arizona’s U-Haul van registration number to watch out for, two law enforcement officials said. By early evening, police had found a matching, unoccupied van U-Haul in Brooklyn, one officer said.
Police closed a street about six kilometers from the scene of the shooting and cleared nearby businesses while waiting for a bomb squad and a highly specialized emergency service.
Investigators found a credit card at the scene of Tuesday’s shooting that led them to identify a person of interest, a law enforcement official said, adding that the credit card was used to rent the U-Haul van, which police found in Brooklyn. . The two officers were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Investigators also found a gun at the scene, along with a number of smoke devices and other items they were analyzing, officials said. They said the suspect had at least two extended magazines.
Authorities believe the weapon jammed, preventing the suspect from continuing to fire. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has completed emergency tracking to identify the manufacturer, seller and original owner of the weapon.
Officials were not authorized to discuss the investigation and said on condition of anonymity.
“It has to end,” the governor said
New York Governor Katie Hochul, who encouraged witnesses to come out, described the suspects as “cold-blooded” and “depraved.”
“No more mass shootings. No more life-threatening. No more heartbreaking for people who are just trying to live their lives … it has to end,” she said.
WATCH The governor of New York is fed up with gun violence in New York:
“No more mass shootings,” said the governor of New York
New York Gov. Katie Hochul called for an end to the mass shootings after a gunman opened fire on a Brooklyn subway station on Tuesday morning, injuring several people. “I am committing the full resources of our country to fighting this scourge of crime,” she said. 1:17
Witnesses describe chaos, smoke
The Sofia Transport Administration announced last fall that it had installed security cameras in all 472 metro stations across the city, saying it would put the criminals on an “express path to justice”. But the cameras apparently did not work at the station where the train arrived, New York Mayor Eric Adams told WCBS-AM.
A video of a train driver showing smoke and people pouring out of a subway car. Soldiers explode as passengers run to the exit while several others limp off the train. One falls to the platform and a man shouts, “Someone call 911!” In other videos and photos from the scene, people tend to have bloodied passengers lying on the platform, some among what looks like small puddles of blood, and another person on the floor of a subway car.
A wider shot shows emergency personnel gathered at the entrance to a Brooklyn subway station on Tuesday. (John Minchilo / Associated Press)
Danny Mastrogiorgio of Brooklyn had just left his son at school when he saw a crowd of passengers, including many wounded, running up the subway stairs at 25th Street in a panic. At least two had visible leg injuries, he said.
“It was crazy,” he told the Associated Press. “Nobody knew exactly what was going on.”
Officers walked around Fourth Avenue, the intersection of the station, asking witnesses if they were on the train. A sea of emergency lights could be seen from at least a dozen blocks where a police cordon was set up.
A member of the New York Police Department climbs the ladder to pick up a security camera near the Brooklyn subway station. (Timothy A. Clary / AFP / Getty Images)
Some of those who were not shot but injured may have inhaled smoke, officials said, as the suspect is believed to have thrown a gas can before opening fire in the incident, which occurred around 8:25 p.m.
Firefighters and police investigated early reports of an explosion, but Sewell said no explosive devices were known.
Recent subway attacks
After the shooting, local schools, including Sunset High School across the street, were locked.
Some buses were put into operation as a result of subway disruptions.
A police dog was led by an officer at Manhattan Times Square after Tuesday’s shooting in Brooklyn. (Gina Moon / Reuters)
Janno Lieber, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, praised New Yorkers close to the attack for “stepping up” to help injured and shaken passengers.
No MTA workers were physically injured, according to a statement from the Local 100 Transport Workers’ Union.
We need the help of the public to catch the person responsible for the shooting of many people today in the subway in pic.twitter.com/d2wTfNbMDD
– @NYPDPC
The New York subway system has witnessed a series of recent attacks. An Asian American woman was pushed to her death in front of a train at Times Square subway station in January, while a man from Staten Island died last week after being stabbed at a Wall Street station.
“I am committing the full resources of our country to fight this influx of crime, this madness that is taking over our city, because we want to return to normal,” Hochul said.
“For this we will continue to work with the mayor.
Following a 2017 incident that caused panic at the Port Authority bus station in central Manhattan, a permanent resident of the United States from Bangladesh was sentenced to life in prison on federal charges last year. The man detonated an improvised explosive device, injuring the lives of several people nearby.
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