Five miles from where the man opened up fire in subway train in Brooklyn and shot 10 people during the morning turmoil, police discovered a rented U-Haul van late Tuesday afternoon that they believed was being driven by the shooter, senior law enforcement official said.
But the van was empty. official said, but the shooter remained at large, as dozens of agents of local, state, and federal law enforcement searched for his, more than eight hours after he put on a gas mask on crowded train N, released the canister of smoke and started shooting.
At least 16 people were injured, 10 of them under fire on train and on platform on st. busy 36th street station in the Sunset Park area, where three subway lines converge. The Ministry of Emergency Situations reported five victims in critical condition, but none are believed to have sustained life-threatening injuries.
Shooting just before 8:30 am set off panic and chaos on the train, in station and surrounding streets and sent schools in neighborhood in lockdown that lasted a lot of day. It happened like city was already struggling deal with both rise in shootings throughout the city and an increase in crime and mess in subway that discouraged commuters from returning to public transport system this led to a sharp drop in passenger traffic during the pandemic.
Mayor Eric Adams said the search for the shooter was thwarted fact that at least one security camera at the 36th Street subway station that could film the scene, there was no operating. A “fault” has occurred with in camera system on this particular station,” Mr. Adams told WCBS 880.
Witnesses to the shooting described the shooter as a short black man. with heavy build wearing a green construction vest and a gray sweatshirt.
The van has been spotted in front of flat building on West 3rd Street just off shopping street Kings Highway in Gravesend area, senior law enforcement official said.
official also said that gun was found inside the metro station. Authorities have not released the suspect’s name or motive. for in attack. But another high-ranking police officer official said that attack seemed to have been planned and showed no signs of springing from something spontaneous like dispute on a train.
When the shooting started and the doors of train N opened, smoke shrouded the station, frightened passengers fled, many of they rush to the R train sitting across the platform. Seats in the subway and carriages were in lanes with blood like people called for help.
John Bucicares, 15, a freshman at Brooklyn Tech School, said his trip on the northbound R train from Bay Ridge was quiet until the train pulled up to 36th Street. When the doors opened, the conductor directed the passengers on platform to race inside R.
“I do not know what’s going on,” he said. “There was just panic.”
José Echevarria, 50, electrician, headed to work in Manhattan, said he was going switch from R to N when he saw the smoke and flashes of gunshots on N and people Run off This is.
He said he took one young Human who was shot in leg and bleeding profusely, and helped him get on the R train. “He was so scared,” Mr. Echevarria said. young the man told Mr Echevarria that he had first saw the shooter at the New Utrecht Avenue station, four stops before 36th Street.
AT news briefing, Commissioner Sewell said the police were looking for a man with heavy build who was wearing a green construction vest and a gray sweatshirt. She said no active explosive devices were found on the spot or on trains.
Patrick Berry, 41, said he was waiting at the 25th Street station. one stop north when the R train arrived around 8:30 am. He and his 3-year-old daughter sat down, but the train did not move.
And suddenly from the front of train I heard people Screaming: “Run, run, run! Go, go, go! And then all these people came sprint past our car and me just felt like”Oh my God, it’s a stampede,” Mr. Berry said. “People started pushing out from behind. So I grabbed my daughter and we ran too.
To the front of train, three victims were under the supervision of passers-by. A uniformed policeman approached and asked the passengers call 911 because his radio wasn’t working. One teenager who introduced himself as Fitim, had a hole in his sweatpants, which he said were formed by a bullet.
Near the 36th street station, dozens of police vehicles with The streets were littered with flashing lights, and helicopters were flying overhead.
“We saw the ambulance arrive. out with stretcher with a person on it,” Silvana Guerrero, 20, said. who works at the nearby Sunset Bagels Cafe & Grill. “Their leg was injured – I didn’t sure exactly what went on or what was on. And then, we saw, after that, two ambulances arrived. out, with two peoplelikejumping on one leg.”
Fifteen people treated in hospitals for injuries, including gunshot wounds and smoke inhalation: eight at NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn, five at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, and three at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, the hospitals reported.
Report has been provided Jonah E. Bromwich, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Joseph Goldstein, Andrew Hinderaker, Sadef Ali Kulli, Ana Lay, Chelsea Rose Marsius and William K. Rushbaum.
