At least 23 were injured, five critically, in an attack at the 36th Street stop in Sunset Park after a man released two smoke grenades and started shooting.
A man in an orange construction vest put on a gas mask, released two smoke grenades and opened fire on an N train in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning, shooting at least 10 people, inciting panic in the subway during a peak commuting period and setting off a citywide manhunt, officials said. At least 23 people were injured — 10 from gunfire,13 from smoke inhalation or injuries related to fleeing — and five of them were critically hurt, but officials said they all were in stable condition and were expected to survive. But the mass shooting — one of the worst outbreaks of violence in the subway in recent history — heightened fears across New York at a time when officials have been confronting a rise in violent crime and struggling to lure riders back to a public transit system hobbled by the pandemic. By nightfall, the police were still searching for the gunman, and the city remained on high alert. The Police Department said it had identified a person of interest, Frank R. James, in the shooting who was being sought. Officers at the scene found a 9-millimeter handgun, extended ammo magazines and a hatchet, said Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell. They also found a liquid believed to be gasoline, two unused smoke grenades and a key to a U-Haul vehicle, the police said. Hours later, officers found the U-Haul van, Commissioner Sewell said. Mr. James,62, rented the vehicle in Philadelphia and has addresses there and in Wisconsin, police officials said. Detectives were still investigating whether he was connected to the shooting. As the evening commute began, many New Yorkers were expressing fears about using the subway, after months of anxiety over whether the transit system had become increasingly unsafe. “I’m terrified of taking the subway,” said James Lee,33, who lives in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens and works near the subway station where the shooting took place. “I never take public transportation anymore in New York, period.” The concern that the shooting provoked delivered a serious blow to Mayor Eric Adams, who has spent his first months in office focusing intently on crime and working to reassure New Yorkers and tourists that the city was safe. Cellphone video taken from the subway platform at the 36th Street station in Sunset Park, where the N train arrived at around 8:30 a.m., showed panicked riders stumbling out of smoke-filled cars, some of them staggering from apparent gunshot wounds. Fitim Gjeloshi,20, was in the subway car with the gunman, he said. Just before he started shooting, the gunman uttered a strange phrase: “Oops, my bad,” Mr. Gjeloshi said. “I started running,” said Mr. Gjeloshi, who lives in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. “He aims at me first. I got lucky, the bullet went through my pants.” Mr. Gjeloshi said he shouted at everyone to move quickly to an R train across the platform. There were two people who were badly injured and in need of help, he recalled. He only realized there were holes in his pants after the attack was over. Passengers on the R train watched in shock as they heard the pops of gunshots and watched the screaming passengers rush toward them. Several subway seats were streaked with blood. “People were screaming and running out of the train,” said José Echevarria, a 50-year-old electrician who was on the R train.
