Brooklyn NY subway shooting leaves over 20 people injured
Ten people were shot on Tuesday morning inside a subway train in Brooklyn after a man put on a gas mask, set off two smoke canisters and began shooting at terrified passengers, New York city officials said.
Thirteen other people were injured as a result of smoke inhalation or as they tried to get out of the station, Keechant Sewell, the New York City Police Commissioner said.
Five of the gunshot victims were in critical but stable condition, but none of the injuries were life-threatening.
The gunman “opened two canisters that dispensed smoke throughout the subway car,” Sewell said. “He then shot multiple passengers as the train pulled into the 36th Street station.”
The attacker, who police said was wearing a neon orange vest and grey sweater, was using a handgun, and fled the scene.
Police later said they were looking for 62-year-old Frank R James as a ‘person of interest’ in relation to the attack, saying he had addresses in Philadelphia and Wisconsin. He was traced through a set of keys for a hire van that were found in the aftermath of the shooting.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, issued a video statement thanking those who responded at the scene and said all those who had been taken to hospital were expected to recover.
“Today is a dark day for New York,” Adams said.
He said it began as the N train pulled out of the 59th street station.
Foote-Smith said he saw white smoke billow in the adjoining train car and heard loud bangs.
“We crowded to the end of the car,” he said. “It was just a really scary moment for everyone.”
He said the train stopped in the tunnel, then travelled into the 36th street station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighbourhood where the conductor told passengers to get onto an adjoining R train. He and others, including some who were injured took that train to 25th street, where emergency personnel tended to the wounded, he said.
33 shots fired
New York City Police Department (NYPD) chief James Essig said the gunman had fired 33 shots. Police later recovered a Glock 17 nine-millimetre handgun, three additional ammunition magazines and a hatchet from the scene.
After initial reports that undetonated devices had been found at the scene, the NYPD tweeted there were no active explosive devices at the station.
Video from the scene showed people tending to bloodied passengers lying on the floor of the station.
Other videos of the immediate aftermath showed smoke escaping from the opening doors of a carriage as the train pulled into the station.
Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo said hundreds of police officers were on the scene in the hour after the attack “actively” searching for the attacker.
“Officers are actually going through the tracks, walking in the tracks, looking potentially for the shooter or looking for fragments of bullets, as well,” Elizondo told Al Jazeera. “This is going to be an ongoing investigation, for many hours, at least initially, not only looking for the shooter but also gathering evidence.”
More than a dozen police and fire vehicles with blue and red lights flashing were on the street outside the station, and federal officials from the FBI and other agencies joined them as the morning wore on.
“There’s going to be a collaborative approach” to the investigation among local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, retired NYPD lieutenant Darrin Porcher told Al Jazeera. NYPD detectives will be working with members of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and agents of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), he said. Read More...
