New York police hunt for gunman in gas mask

NEW YORK • Sixteen people were injured, including eight who were shot, in a Brooklyn subway station during yesterday's morning rush, officials said, a violent episode that came amid fears about public safety as New York City struggles to recover from the pandemic.

A law enforcement official said the police were seeking a black man wearing a gas mask and a green construction vest, who is about 1.73m tall and weighs about 79kg to 82kg.

A senior law enforcement official said investigators believed that a smoke bomb went off and that the gunman had shot from inside a subway train.

Videos posted on social media showed panicked riders pouring from a train and onto a platform at 36th Street as smoke billowed through the station.

Ms Juliana Fonda, a broadcast engineer at radio station WNYC, told local news website Gothamist that she heard shots while in an adjoining subway car.

"The reaction of the passengers was terrifying because they were trying to get into our car away from something that was happening in the back of the train," she said. "None of us in the front of the train knew what was going on, but people were pounding and looking behind them, running, trying to get onto the train."

She added that she heard "a lot of loud pops" and that there was smoke in another train car.

Mr Konrad Aderer, a commuter, was in the stairwell about to enter the 36th Street station when he saw a man with bleeding legs explaining what had happened to a worker at the station booth.

"He just said that there were a lot of people bleeding," Mr Aderer told Fox News in a phone interview. "He took it upon himself to make sure that people were alerted, despite being injured."

There were no active explosive devices, the New York Police Department said on Twitter shortly before 10am.

Police officers were called to the 36th Street subway station, where the D, N and R lines pass through the Sunset Park neighbourhood, around 8.30am, the police department said. Police had also received reports of smoke inside the station.

Transit officials said that trains on the D, N and R lines would be delayed because of an investigation. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the city's subway, said no additional details were immediately available.

Shootings in New York City have risen this year, and the uptick in violent gun crime has been a central focus for Mayor Eric Adams since he took office in January.

From the start of the year to April 3, shooting incidents rose to 296 from 260 during the same period last year, according to police department statistics.

The increase comes after gun violence hit historic lows in 2018 and 2019, and the city remains safer than in previous years.

But as New Yorkers emerged from the shutdowns that marked the start of the pandemic, many found the city more dangerous than it was when the pandemic swept across New York in the spring of 2020.

About 3.3 million people ride the subway during weekdays, down from an average 5.5 million in 2019, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's latest ridership data. The 36th Street station was serving about 13,342 weekday riders in 2019 before the pandemic. In 2020, it served about 6,000.

"President (Joe) Biden has been briefed on the latest developments regarding the New York City subway shooting," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. "White House senior staff are in touch with Mayor Adams and police commissioner (Keechant) Sewell to offer any assistance as needed."

Mr Adams, a former police officer, has sought to reassure residents and has made tackling gun crime a central focus of his administration.

He recently deployed seven new anti-gun police units, and last month, the New York Police Department began to enforce so-called quality-of-life matters, recalling the city's embrace of "broken windows" policing - the stricter enforcement of low-level offences in an effort to prevent more serious crimes.

The mayor has taken a similar approach in the subway system, where transit leaders had for months before his tenure been seeking more help in policing trains and stations.

NYTIMES, BLOOMBERG, REUTERS