No criminal charges are being filed against a 32-year-old man who shot another man during a fight on a Brooklyn subway train as fellow passengers ran for their lives.
On Friday afternoon, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office cited "evidence of self defense" as the reason no charges are being filed at this time, but the investigation is ongoing.
The 36-year-old victim was shot four times with his own gun. According to police sources, he was armed with a knife and gun and acting as the aggressor when he got into a dispute with a 32-year-old subway rider.
Police say chaos unfolded on the A train at around 4:45 p.m. Thursday at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station.
As the 32-year-old man boarded the train, he was approached by the 36-year-old, who was already on the train, and a dispute ensued.
Officials said Friday morning that they later determined a woman was also involved in the altercation.
"There was a female that was on the train, apparently with the 32-year-old. it looks like on that video. it captures her involvement in the incident also. It looks like she had a sharp object and cut the 36-year-old male with that sharp object," NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said.
The woman appeared to stab the victim in the lower back during the fight.
Authorities say that after he was stabbed, the 36-year-old man asked "Did you stab me?" He pulled a gun from his jacket and asked again, "You stabbed me, right?"
The 32-year-old man was able to grab the gun and the 36-year-old man was shot four times -- twice in the right side of the face, once in the neck and once in the chest.
Cellphone video from a passenger captured the dispute between the two men, and the frantic moments as passengers scrambled to safety when the shots rang out. One woman can be heard screaming, "Let me out, let me out!"
The full video of the dispute that led to a stabbing and shooting on a NYC subway train in Brooklyn
"I don't think I was going to make it back home. I was next to everything like just like you are in front of me. That's where I was," a commuter recalled.
The train pulled into the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station, where officers heard the shots and flooded the crime scene. Police saw the 32-year-old come out with blood on his face. He went back on the train, walked back out, and was taken down at gunpoint by the officers. Fellow passengers identified him as the gunman.
The 36-year-old was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in critical condition. Authorities say a gun was recovered at the scene and he was caught on video entering the subway without paying the fare.
WATCH | MTA CEO Janno Lieber and NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper give update:
New details have emerged out of the terrifying shooting on a Brooklyn subway.
New York City officials react to subway shooting
MTA CEO Janno Lieber says there is no place for guns on trains and highlighted the dangers posed by illegal firearms.
"To be in an enclosed space with that kind of violence going on is the most unsettling thing that can happen," stated Lieber. "That's why we are pushing for more uniformed officers to be constantly present in the system."
Lieber also thanked Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams. He says their commitment to rider safety, crime deterrence, and crime prevention is paramount.
"Transit crime is 2% of the crime in the city of New York, but it has a huge disproportionate impact on people's sense of safety," he said.
The shooting happened despite the largest deployment of police manpower in the transit system in decades. Last week, the National Guard began conducting random bag checks at major rail terminals.
Mayor Eric Adams has insisted the deployments will not only make New Yorkers feel safer-they will actually be safer.
"The strategy was the right one. We have police officers there and we have police officers who are complementing the traditional transit patrol, who are going into the system and doing inspections and because of that, we made a quick apprehension," Adams said. "We were able to prevent an additional act of violence from that firearm that was in the system."
Adams went on to say that he believes this incident was the result of a person with mental illness.
"A person with severe mental health illness, what appears to be severe mental health illness, got engaged in a very violent way. The investigation is going to take its course," Adams said.
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