At least ten people were shot at a Brooklyn subway station where several undetonated devices were discovered on Tuesday morning, according to city officials.
The New York City Fire Department responded to reports of smoke at the 36th Street and Fourth Avenue station in Brooklyn, where they reportedly found the gunshot victims at around 8:30 a.m. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said that more were injured in some form or another in the attack.
Police are now investigating and are searching for the suspect who is still at large, and have instructed pedestrians to avoid the area.
At a press conference held outside of the subway station in Brooklyn, New York governor Kathy Hochul declared that she would be “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.”
“It has been a long, hard two years,” added Hochul, who called it an “active-shooter situation.” New York City saw a 38 percent increase in major crimes in January 2022 as compared to January 2021.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at the press conference that “this is not being investigated as an act of terrorism at this time.” According to officials, none of those wounded in the attack suffered life-threatening injuries.
Several law enforcement sources told NBC New York that the suspect was reportedly dressed in something like an MTA uniform — an orange construction vest, as well as a gas mask — when he hurled a smoke canister onto the platform and opened fire. As of 10:05 a.m., the shooter had not been apprehended by authorities. Police are still searching through the subway platforms for the suspect, who they said they believed to be a man standing about 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing somewhere around 180 pounds.
During an appearance on WCBS 880 AM, New York City Mayor Adams said that there was a “malfunction with the camera system at that particular station” where the attack happened. The city is reportedly working with the MTA to figure out whether only one camera wasn’t working or whether the whole station was effected.
John Butsikares, a freshman at Brooklyn Tech, told National Review that while he didn’t see the attack itself, he did witness the aftermath while he was on his way to school Tuesday morning.
“I didn’t know what had happened at first, but after I found out it was pretty scary,” said Butsikares. The high school student noted that he uses the subway every day and is “definitely a little more scared now” to continue doing so.
Photographs from the scene show victims on the subway platform covered in blood. Video footage shows commuters running out of a train car with smoke clouds behind them. Some stopped to attend to the injured, the recording shows.
Tatcho Ramos, a Sunset Park resident who works at a bodega a block from the subway station where the incident occurred, told National Review that he saw people running down the street away from the scene. He said he’s noticed a rise in crime in his neighborhood in the last couple years. “Before a few years ago, this area was quiet, it was nice, but now you never know,” observed Ramos.
In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Adams boasted that his administration has “put in place major initiatives to deal with some of the systemic and historical problems we have had not only in New York City but with this level of violence we have had throughout our entire country,” citing the proliferation of transit initiatives and anti-gun units under his administration.
“We know there’s a real challenge of many of the people who are on our streets participating in dangerous acts, they have had a bottleneck in our court system, they are not serving the time in prison like they should be, this is what I call a revolving door of a criminal justice system,” added Adams, who has been critical of — and put pressure on — progressive city prosecutors like Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg.
“We will not allow New Yorkers to be terrorized,” said Adams.
At the press conference, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams argued that it’s important to maintain perspective on the crime wave. “The subway isn’t as bad as the 90s. We need to set that context when talking about crime. Everything is not out of control,” he said.
Williams conceded, however, that “if you’re a victim of crime, data means nothing.”
State senator Andrew Gonardez stated that he “was passing through the station ten minutes before it happened.”
“The subway needs to be safe once again,” added Gonardez
