Gunman opens fire on a crowded Brooklyn subway train
A man set off smoke and shot ten people on a morning rush-hour train in Sunset Park before fleeing; he was arrested a day later.
A gunman opened fire on a crowded subway train in Brooklyn during the Tuesday morning rush hour, wounding ten people in a terrifying attack that sent panicked riders fleeing through a smoke-filled station and triggered a massive manhunt across the city.
The attacker, wearing a gas mask and a construction vest, set off smoke devices and then fired dozens of rounds as the N train approached the 36th Street station in the Sunset Park neighbourhood, police said. Ten people were struck by gunfire and more than a dozen others were injured in the chaos, though no one was killed.
Bloodied and terrified commuters stumbled onto the platform as the train pulled in, and bystanders rushed to help the wounded. The gunman escaped in the confusion, setting off a day-long search that gripped the city.
The suspect, a 62-year-old man, was arrested the following day in Manhattan's East Village after a tip, and was later charged with a federal terrorism offence. Investigators recovered the weapon and other materials linked to the attack.
The shooting rattled a city already anxious about subway safety and crime, and it intensified the debate over how to protect the system that millions rely on each day. For Mayor Adams, who had made safety the centrepiece of his new administration, it was an early and sobering test.