Many New York subway passengers feared for their lives Thursday after an aggressive thirty-year-old attacked a stranger, before drawing a gun in the middle of rush hour.
“People were crying, praying, hugging each other… It was a very scary moment,” ABC journalist Joyce Philippe, who was in another train car at the station, told the New York Post. when shots rang out.
Around 4:45 p.m. Thursday, a fight reportedly broke out in a New York subway car when a 36-year-old man, dressed in black, was aggressive towards another passenger, aged 32, by threatening to beat him several times.
According to images filmed by a passenger, the two men then exchanged a few blows when the aggressive individual took a knife or a razor blade from his pocket, before heading towards his coat set back on a bench to remove a firearm.
It was then that the other passengers present in the car started shouting and pushing each other, trying to flee towards the exit opposite the fight, before at least four shots rang out in the heckling, reported the American media.
“Let me out,” a panicked woman can be heard rushing towards the still-closed door, in the images viewed more than 175,000 times.
According to the American newspaper, the police rushed on the two men as soon as the carriage doors opened at the Hoyt – Schermerhorn station, before arresting the 32-year-old man who arrived, according to the authorities. , to take the weapon from the hands of his attacker before using it against him.
It is unclear whether the shooter will face charges in the context, as the New York Police Department (NYPD) reportedly indicated that the “victim appeared to be the attacker.”
The latter was reportedly rushed to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in critical condition to undergo surgery, according to the “NY Post”.
The incident reportedly occurred only a week after the city announced plans to deploy around 100 National Guard troops and state police to monitor passengers’ bags, after eight of them were shot in the metro since the start of the year – an increase of 700% compared to last year.
At least three of them lost their lives, according to the “NY Post”.
