What we know about the suspect, the attack
New Yorkers were trying to make sense of an attack on Tuesday morning after a gunman detonated smoke bombs on a subway train before shooting several people in Brooklyn.
The as-yet-unidentified gunman shot and killed 10 people before fleeing from the train station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. At least six other people were injured in the attack.
“We will not allow New Yorkers to be terrorized by even one individual,” said Mayor Eric Adams in a video statement. “The NYPD is looking for the suspect at large, and we will find him.”
Adams, who is self-isolating after testing positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, said police found no actual explosive devices, but the attacker detonated smoke bombs to “create havoc”.
The attack took place during Tuesday morning’s commute on a subway train in Sunset Park, a neighborhood in southwest Brooklyn about a 15-minute train ride from Manhattan.
NYC ATTACK:At least 10 people shot dead, shooter at large after Brooklyn subway attack, officials say
Here’s what we know about the attack.
What happened during the NYC subway shootings?
As a Manhattan-bound N train waited to pull into the rush hour 36th Street station before 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, a man put on a gas mask, pulled a canister from his bag, and opened on the train, filling the train car with smoke, New York City Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said.
The man then opened fire, hitting several people in the subway and on the platform.
Videos of the scene shared on social media show the carriage filled with smoke as passengers flee, some limping off the train. Other videos show bloodied passengers lying on the train platform.
There were currently no known explosive devices on the subway trains, Sewell said.
Who is the shooter?
Police were looking for the shooter, described as a black man with a “heavy build” and who was wearing a green “construction-type vest” and a gray hoodie, Sewell said on Tuesday.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul urged residents to remain vigilant at Tuesday’s news conference and called the incident an “active shooter situation.”
“This individual is still at large,” she said. “This person is dangerous.”
“Getting into the source of why he did what he did is something that will come out once this investigation is complete,” Adams said. “We’re not taking anything off the table. We have to apprehend the person, dig into their background and get the details to give the correct classification.”
How many people were injured?
There were 16 people injured in the attack, including 10 people who were shot, Laura Kavanagh, New York Fire Department’s first deputy commissioner, said at a news conference on Tuesday. Other injuries were caused by smoke inhalation, shrapnel and “panic”, Kavanagh said.
Five of the victims were in critical but stable condition. There were no life-threatening injuries, Sewell said.
No Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers were injured, the New York City Transit Union said in a statement.
The attack is not being investigated as terrorism
Sewell said the attack was not currently being investigated as an act of terrorism, but did not give details.
“We don’t know the motive at this time, but we’re not ruling anything out,” she said.
William Bratton, a former New York Police Department commissioner, said evidence that the attacker may have been ideologically or politically motivated may emerge later in the investigation, adding that the attack took place in a predominantly Asian community amid a recent uptick in violence. against Asian American communities.
“Is it terror or just a deranged individual? It’s a question that may take time, but it will be resolved,” Bratton said.
Where is Sunset Park?
Sunset Park is a neighborhood in southwest Brooklyn that’s about a 15-minute train ride from Manhattan.
The neighborhood is primarily home to Hispanic and Asian American communities: 34.8% of the neighborhood is Asian while 35.6% is Hispanic, according to 2019 data from New York University’s Furman Center. About 46% of the neighborhood’s population was foreign-born in 2019.
Local schools, including Sunset Park High School, were locked down after the shooting.
Rail service interrupted
The subway station where the attack occurs serves the D, N, and R lines, all of which serve Manhattan. Services on lines in Brooklyn and some Manhattan stations have been suspended, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The shooting comes amid a surge in subway crime
Governor Hochul said Tuesday that New Yorkers are “sick and tired” of reading the crime headlines.
“No more mass shootings,” she said. “No more disruptive lives. No more heartbreak for people who are just trying to live their lives like normal New Yorkers. It has to stop now.”
The shooting comes amid a spike in crime in New York City’s subway, where transit crime is up 68% so far in 2022 compared to 2021, according to NYPD statistics.
“I am committing all of our state’s resources to fighting this scourge of crime, this madness that is gripping our cities, because we want to get back to normal,” Hochul said.
Contributors: Ryan W. Miller, Kevin McCoy, Gabriela Miranda, Kevin Johnson and Eduard Cuevas, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
Contact News Now Reporter Christine Fernando at cfernando@usatoday.com or follow her on Twitter at @christinetfern.
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