New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) recently deployed 750 National Guardsmen and 250 additional officers from state-controlled law enforcement agencies to help curb crime on New York City’s sprawling subway system. The presence of soldiers was evidently not enough of a deterrent Thursday to prevent a bloodletting on a busy train in Brooklyn.
A fight caught on tape broke out on a northbound A Train in Brooklyn that left one man riddled with bullets and a crowd full of commuters cowering in fear.
NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper indicated during a
briefing that shortly after a 32-year-old man entered a crowded train around 4:45 p.m., a 36-year-old man confronted him.
The older male was described by multiple witnesses as being “aggressive and provocative towards the 32-year-old that just got on.”
Footage of the incident appears to show a black male in a yellow baseball cap mutter to himself, then walk over to the younger man, threatening to beat him up. At one point, the apparent instigator states, “You think you’re gonna beat up cops?”
Someone off camera can be heard saying, “He thinks you’re a migrant. He thinks you’re an immigrant.”
“F*** your kind. F*** your race. F*** you,” said the instigator.
The younger man stands up to face his apparent aggressor and squares off for a fight, prompting nearby riders to begin pressing toward the far side of the train.
“There’s babies on here,” one woman can be heard yelling as the men begin to circle a post with their fists at the ready.
After a brief exchange of blows, the instigator takes the advantage, pinning the 32-year-old against a seat.
A masked woman who was previously standing beside the 32-year-old appears to dig into her purse, then stab the instigator repeatedly in the back.
The instigator looks over at the woman and shouts, “Did you stab me?”
“I didn’t do nothing,” the masked woman responds.
A bystander attempts to de-escalate and separate the two fighters, but the instigator, whose lower back is bleeding, continues accusing the woman of stabbing him.
“It became physical again and at some point the 36-year-old removed a firearm from his jacket,” said Kemper. “He then took that firearm, started walking toward the 32-year-old who was on the train, yelling at him, walking toward him in a menacing way, and it became physical again between the two.”
During this final physical confrontation, the young man managed to get a hold on the gun and allegedly fired multiple shots. Kemper indicated the firearm used in the scuffle was a “small semi-automatic, maybe a .32 or a .25.”
As melee unfolded, the train pulled into Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets station, where multiple police officers heard the shots, then rushed into action.
The 36-year-old man was taken to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in critical condition. The 32-year-old man was in custody as of Thursday night.
Footage taken after shooting shows commuters taking cover and police
on the scene with guns drawn.
Forbes
indicated that crime on the transit system increased 13.1% between January and March as compared with the same period last year. There were 388 incidents between Jan. 1 and March 3, the majority of which were grand larceny and felony assault.
On March 3, a teenage girl was brutally attacked at the 168th Street Station and a 64-year-old man was kicked onto the subway tracks at Penn Station. Days earlier, Spectrum News reported a man was randomly slashed with a box cutter near Penn Station.
Richard Henderson, a 45-year-old crossing guard and father of three, was
gunned down in January after trying to break up a fight on the subway in Brownsville.
Last month, Obed Beltran-Sanchez, a 35-year-old man with no permanent address, was slain and several others were injured in a
rush-hour shooting resulting from a dispute between two groups of teenage thugs at the Mount Eden Avenue subway station.
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