NEW YORK (AP) — A man was shot multiple times and critically wounded on a New York City subway train as it arrived at a busy station in downtown Brooklyn on Thursday, panicking evening rush hour passengers.
The shooting came a week after Gov. Kathy Hochul sent the National Guard into the subway system to help police search people for weapons after a series of high-profile crimes on city trains.
Authorities said Thursday’s shooting involved two men who had gotten into a confrontation, then a physical fight, aboard a moving train just before 4:45 p.m.
One of the men, who police said was 36, pulled a gun and brandished it. The other man, age 32, got possession of the handgun and fired at the person he was arguing with, according to Michael Kemper, the Police Department’s Chief of Transit.
The shooting happened at a stop in downtown Brooklyn where the NYPD has a small office. Police officers were on the platform and quickly took the shooter into custody.
The wounded man was in critical condition. Neither man was identified.
Video posted on social media by an ABC News journalist who was aboard the train when it happened showed passengers crouched on the floor as officers could be heard shouting on the platform.
“The real victims are the people I saw in those videos who were having a harrowing time because they’re on a train with somebody with a gun,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Janno Lieber said at a news briefing.
Witnesses told police the 36-year-old man who was severely wounded was acting aggressively aboard the train before the fight broke out, Kemper said.
