© KEYSTONE/EPA/JUSTIN LANE
New York police were on the hunt Tuesday for a man wearing a gas mask who wreaked havoc on the subway during morning rush hour. He set off a smoke device before opening fire, injuring 17, including ten by bullet.
“This person is dangerous,” warned New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, calling on the population to be very careful. Ten hours after the shooting, the suspect was still at large.
The attack occurred at 8:24 a.m. (local time), when the subway trains in the American megacity are crowded, on one of the lines connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan, explained the chief of the new police. Yorker (NYPD), Keechant Sewell.
“As the train pulled into the station, the individual put on a gas mask. He then opened a canister that was in his bag and the (metro) car filled with smoke. After that he started to shoot”, described the police chief who ruled out at this stage “an act of terrorism”.
According to the firefighters, 10 of the 17 injured people were hit by bullets, but none were in danger of death at midday, said Keechant Sewell.
Strong build
In front of the press gathered above the Brooklyn subway station, she described the suspect as “a black man” measuring about “1m65” and “heavy build”, wearing a “green construction vest” and a sweatshirt. gray hooded shirt.
Amateur photos and videos showed pools of blood and people lying on the floor of a subway train, as well as on the platform of the “36th Street” station in the borough of Brooklyn.
Another video shows crowds exiting a smoky subway car at the 36th street station, amid shouts but no jostling.
“Planned”
According to one of the passengers, Yav Montano, who spoke on CNN, “a smoke grenade…a bomb went off I would say two minutes before we got to the station.”
“It looked like it was planned (…). We were stuck in the car (…), there was blood on the ground. There was a lot of blood on the ground, “added this male.
A spokesman for the fire department told AFP that “untriggered explosive devices” had been found on the spot, but no “operable explosive device” according to the police.
An important security device was deployed at 36th Street and 4th Avenue, in the south of Brooklyn, very close to the large cemetery of Greenwood. Ambulances, fire engines and police arrived in large numbers on the spot.
Several schools in Brooklyn have immediately canceled all outings of their students.
“We won’t let go”
“We will not let go until we find the perpetrator,” said US President Joe Biden during a speech in Iowa.
He announced Monday new measures against some of the firearms that proliferate in the United States, and which killed 45,000 people in the country in 2021, suicides included, according to the organization Gun Violence Archive. The White House regularly speaks of an “epidemic”.
The attack came as New York City has faced a spike in crime since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Elected on security promises, the new Democratic mayor of New York, former police officer Eric Adams, launched a plan to combat the proliferation of firearms at the end of January, after the death of two police officers shot dead during a an intervention. But other dramas involving guns have made headlines since.
Upsurge
“We’re tired of reading the headlines about crime, whether it’s shootings or the loss of a teenage girl or a 13-year-old. This needs to stop,” the governor said. , referring to several recent victims – including children – of shootings or stray bullets.
Mayor Eric Adams, who contracted Covid-19 a few days ago, was unable to attend.
For the first quarter of 2022 – from January 1 to early April – the number of shootings and shootings in New York increased by 260 to 296 compared to the same period of 2021, according to police figures released last week .