Dramatic scenes in a New York subway: A man spreads clouds of smoke and opens fire, at least 23 people are injured. The background is unclear, the perpetrator is on the run.
After shots and at least 23 injuries in the New York subway, the police are looking for the perpetrator in a large-scale operation.
The authorities said at a press conference that a 62-year-old man was being sought who was a “person of interest” in connection with the incident. The man rented a pickup truck in Philadelphia. The key to the vehicle was found in a bag at the scene of the crime, which could possibly be assigned to the perpetrator.
The pickup truck was found parked in another part of Brooklyn after the incident. It is still unclear whether the 62-year-old man, who lives in Philadelphia and Wisconsin, could also be the perpetrator.
It is also suspected that the man is the author of several publications on social media. In it, the author complains about New York, Mayor Eric Adams and homelessness, among other things. The authorities did not want to give any further details. Adams’ police protection will be increased as a precaution, it said. The mayor is currently in isolation at his residence on Manhattan’s Upper East Side due to an infection with the corona virus.
33 shots fired
In the incident during rush hour on Tuesday morning, according to initial findings, a man opened fire on a subway in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The man was sitting in a back corner in the second car of an N train bound for Manhattan between the 59 St and 36 St stations. He wore an orange-green construction worker vest, a corona protective mask, a gray hooded sweater and a neon-green construction worker helmet.
The man then put on a type of gas mask, opened two canisters that emitted smoke or fog, and then opened fire. In total he shot 33 times. The man was able to escape – how he managed to do this and his motive were initially unclear, according to the police. The incident is not currently being investigated as a terrorist act.
The train stopped at the 36 St station in the Sunset Park neighborhood. Videos showed people pouring out of the subway car surrounded by clouds of fog or smoke, some lying on the ground, blood was seen, others tended to the injured.
23 injured – none in mortal danger
At least 23 people were injured. “10 people were injured by gunfire and another 13 were either injured while rushing out of the station or suffered from smoke inhalation,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at the news conference. However, none of them are in mortal danger. The police had previously spoken of at least 16 injuries. “We’re really lucky that it wasn’t much worse than it is.” The New York City Police Department increased their presence on the subway.
According to Sewell, a semi-automatic handgun, several magazines and a small ax were found at the scene. A liquid suspected to be gasoline and a bag of fireworks were also found.
The shooter was “dangerous,” said New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Authorities urged all citizens to be “very careful and vigilant,” she said. Anyone with information should call the police.
Schools temporarily closed
There were numerous delays and failures in the subway system. Schools in the area around the station are temporarily closed, US media quoted a spokesman for the New York school system as saying. Only school children were allowed in, no one was allowed out.
The Sunset Park district used to be mainly industrial, but today many young people and families also live and work there. Around the corner is a training hall belonging to the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, who were preparing for a game there at the time the shots were fired and were dismayed. Numerous subway lines run through the area, which, among other things, bring people from Brooklyn to Manhattan, for example to work and back home.
US President Joe Biden was immediately informed of the incident. Senior White House officials are in contact with the New York Mayor and police leadership, Biden’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Twitter. The government stands ready to provide any assistance needed to the New York authorities should the need arise. “My wife, Jill, and I are praying for the injured and everyone affected by this trauma,” Biden said at an appointment in Iowa.
In New York, numerous shootings and other criminal cases have made headlines in recent months – including in the subway. In 2017 there was an attempted terrorist attack in an underground connecting tunnel between the Port Authority bus station and the Times Square subway station. The then 27-year-old perpetrator was sentenced to life imprisonment last year. At rush hour he tried to blow himself up with a homemade pipe bomb.
Adams wants to take action against crime
Mayor Adams, a former police officer who took office earlier this year, said he would crack down on crime. He spoke on Tuesday of a “difficult day for New York”. The culprit will be found and brought to justice, Adams promised.
“Ordinary New Yorkers woke up this morning expecting a relatively normal day,” Gov. Hochul said. This “feeling of calm and normality” was then brutally destroyed by a “cold-hearted” person. “Today is the day when we New Yorkers come together with the common goal of saying: enough is enough!”