Police error may have allowed the suspect in this morning’s Brooklyn subway shooting to get away, while a source with knowledge of the matter tells Rolling Stone that the NYPD is now investigating the attack as a potential “act of terrorism.”
A New York City Police Department spokesperson tells Rolling Stone there are “multiple people injured,” but that number “keeps changing.” So far, however, all the victims are stable.
According to preliminary reports, at least five people were shot Tuesday morning, April 12. A New York City Fire Department spokesperson told NBC News that 13 people were injured in the mayhem, although it was unclear how many of them were shot. Police also said they were seeking a suspect identified only as a man wearing a gas mask and an orange construction vest.
The NYPD spokesperson added that this is “still an active investigation.” A press conference is expected to take place later today. The suspect has not been apprehended.
According to an NYPD source, the subway shooting suspect’s escape may have actually been enabled by a police error. The shooting likely happened while the Manhattan-bound N train was in between 59th and 36th Street. When the train pulled up at 36th Street, some victims poured out onto the platform as smoke from munitions let off by the gas mask-wearing shooter billowed out from the train car. However, the local duty captain from Brooklyn South patrol reportedly did not freeze all trains in and out of the 36th Street Station, which is a transfer point for the N, R, and D trains.
Some victims were contacted by police at the 25th Street station, indicating they got on a northbound local train after fleeing the N train where shots were initially fired. Similarly, the D line was not frozen in either direction in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
The Deputy Commissioner of Public Information did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
ADVISORY: Due to an investigation, avoid the area of 36th Street and 4th Avenue area in Brooklyn. Expect emergency vehicles and delays in the surrounding area. pic.twitter.com/xPIAHbtSA7
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) April 12, 2022
Police officers were alerted to the incident at around 8:30 a.m. ET, receiving reports of smoke inside the subway station. First responders also found several undetonated devices around the station, which is located in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. On Twitter, the NYPD confirmed there were “NO active explosive devices at this time” at the scene.
Derek French, a photographer who happened to be on a train passing through the station told Rolling Stone in an email, “I had just arrived on the Manhattan-bound R train arriving at the station and saw an N express train. Tried hopping on it but MTA conductor told us to get off. Trying to find a semi-empty car, I saw the victims laying on the floor. Myself and a few other citizens just wanted to help out as best we could for those affected by rendering medical aid until paramedics arrived. I hope they’re ok, as that’s what one emergency response person told us.”
Multiple people shot at 36 street station by two people in #sunsetpark. All are currently being transported to the hospital #NewYork #Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/3Va2iXf0JQ
— Derek French Photo (@derekcfrench) April 12, 2022
One witness told The New York Post that she “lost count” of the number of rounds the shooter fired off and saw the man drop “some kind of cylinder that sparked at the top… I thought he was an MTA worker at first because I was like, I didn’t like pay too much attention. You know? You’ve got the orange on.”
It is unclear what the “undetonated devices” were, but New York — and Brooklyn, specifically — has weathered subway bombings and bomb plots in the past. In 1997, police foiled a plot by two men to detonate pipe bombs in the busy Atlantic Avenue station in downtown Brooklyn.
In April 2021, a Brooklyn man was sentenced to life in prison for detonating a pipe bomb strapped to his chest in the subway station near the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan. He claimed to be inspired by ISIS. Multiple people were convicted in a 2009 plot by Al Qaeda-trained men to bomb the subway systems in New York and London.
Tuesday’s attacks come amid a spate of violent crimes on the subway, which have hampered New Yorkers’ ability to readjust to daily life following the lifting of pandemic lockdown restrictions. But these incidents have also coincided with a huge surge in NYPD officers patrolling subway stations at the direction of NYC Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Despite deploying over 1,000 additional cops to patrol the subway station, eight people were attacked over one weekend in February, where victims were stabbed, punched, robbed, or hit. On a Saturday morning in January, 40-year-old Michelle Go was fatally shoved in front of a train at the Times Square station. Go was of Asian descent, and although there was no indication she was targeted because of her race, her death further punctuated fears surrounding rising violence against Asian people during the pandemic.
The decision by Adams and Hochul to increase the number of cops in NYC subway stations was largely part of a plan to stop unhoused people from sleeping in stations and on trains. Houseless people, however, have been responsible for very few of the recent violent crimes.
This story is developing…
Additional reporting by Brenna Ehrlich.