The operator of train Q remembered the moment when he tried to save a straphanger who was seriously injured during an accidental shooting in the subway in Lower Manhattan on Sunday morning.
“I went to work, expecting to do my regular job, I didn’t expect to be [the] the first man to shoot, trying to help a man who was shot, “cameraman Luis Irizari said in a statement.
The victim, 48-year-old Daniel Enriquez, was found lying in a puddle of blood from Irizari after passengers warned him of the scene. The operator then tried to compress the chest.
“We are not trained for this,” he said of first aid tactics. “How can we mentally prepare for something like this?”
Enriquez was shot dead by a complete stranger in the last car of North Train Q around 11:42 a.m. as the subway crossed the Manhattan Bridge.
After the Q train crossed the bridge and stopped at the Canal Street station, a witness to the shooting pulled out the emergency interruptions.
Irizari said he got off the train to investigate and saw panicked people shouting “He has a gun” and “Someone was shot.”
The operator went to the last car and saw the victim bleeding from his chest on the train floor.
Daniel Enriquez was identified as the victim of the fatal shooting.
“As I reached the last car, I saw a gentleman lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the chest,” he said. He didn’t seem to be breathing. His chest did not move up and down.
Irizari, who has no formal CPR training, said he tried to revive the man, who was left lying in panic.
“No one was helping him, so I went down and pressed his chest, compressing his chest,” he said. “I’m not a trained medical doctor, but I was trying to help this man.”
He continued to uselessly compress the man’s chest until police and paramedics arrived.
Passengers notified the operator of the shooting after the train stopped. Michael Dalton
The victim was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Irizari’s colleague, the conductor of the train, Walstein Chapman, called the railway control to inform them about the shooting.
Chapman tried to keep panicked commuters calm and directed them to alternative subway routes.
“We did what we had to do,” he said. “My heart was still beating, but I had to do what I had to do.”
Meanwhile, the gunman – described as a fat man with a beard – fled when the train stopped on Canal Street. He is running up the stairs from the station to Central Street, police said. He remains at large.
TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano praised the two men for staying calm after the shooting.
“The operator and conductor of the train were shaken and traumatized by today’s violence, but they dealt with the incident and the consequences calmly and professionally,” he said in a statement. “They deserve the city’s gratitude and praise. We are very proud of them. ”
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