New York police on Tuesday chased after a man wearing a gas mask who wreaked havoc on the subway during the morning rush hour by setting off two smoke devices before opening the fire, injuring 23, ten of whom were shot. A 62-year-old African-American is believed to have rented an abandoned van in Brooklyn shortly before the attack.
“We were really lucky that it wasn’t much more serious”underlined the chief of the police of New York (NYPD), Keechant Sewell, summarizing the relief of the authorities after this attack where the suspect – still at large 12 hours after the shooting – fired 33 bullets in the subway.
At 8:24 a.m., when the metro trains of the megalopolis are crowded, the individual, who was wearing a gas mask, “Opened two canisters which released smoke into the train. He then shot a number of passengers as the train entered the 36th Street station” south of Brooklyn,” Keechant Sewell said.
Amateur photos and videos showed pools of blood and people lying on the floor of a train, as well as on the station platform.
Among the victims, none of whom were in mortal danger according to the police, ten were shot and thirteen others in the scramble to get out of the metro or because of smoke inhalation.
Description du suspect
The suspect was described by police as “a black man” measuring approximately 1.65 m, “heavyweight”, and wearing a “green and orange construction vest” and a gray hoodie.
At the scene, the investigators found a handgun and three magazines, as well as a vehicle key which allowed them to go back to a van from the American rental company U-Haul, recently rented and abandoned in Brooklyn.
I saw people in chaos, lying on the ground, three people on the ground
In the subway, “I saw a cloud of smoke, I saw people in chaos, lying on the ground, three people on the ground. Immediately, I said to myself that we had to leave”, told AFP a Brooklyn resident working there, Threstan Ralph, 34.
According to one of the passengers, Yav Montano, speaking 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 train (…) There was a lot of blood on the ground”, added this man.
Throughout the day, an important security device – firefighters, ambulances, police – was deployed. Several schools have canceled all outings of their students.
“We won’t let go until we find the perpetrator”
Visiting Iowa, President Joe Biden promised: “We won’t let go until we find the perpetrator.”
On Monday, Joe Biden announced measures against some of the firearms that proliferate in the United States, and which killed 45,000 people in the United States in 2021, suicides included, according to the organization Gun Violence Archive. A “epidemic” according to the White House.
Tuesday’s attack came as New York has faced a spike in crime since the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of homicides rising from 319 in 2019 to 488 in 2021, although the annual toll remains well below the more than 2,000 per year recorded in the early 1990s.
Elected in November on promises of security, the Democratic mayor and former police officer Eric Adams had launched in January a plan to fight against the proliferation of firearms, after the death of two police officers shot dead during an intervention. But other gun dramas often make headlines.
“We’re sick of reading the headlines about crime, whether it’s shootings or the loss of a teenage girl or a 13-year-old. It has to stop,” launched New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, referring to several recent victims – including children – of shootings or stray bullets.