Man shot in head on packed Brooklyn train during rush hour, sending commuters running for lives
A man was shot in the head with his own gun following a heated fistfight on a packed Brooklyn subway train on Thursday, according to police and video of the incident — sending panicked rush-hour passengers fleeing out the doors.
A 32-year-old man got on the Manhattan-bound A train in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where he was met by a 36-year-old man who witnesses said immediately targeted him, police said at a Thursday evening news briefing.
Prior to the shooting, the older man was seen on video yelling at the other passenger before the two squared up as though to fight, video viewed by the Daily News shows.
The duo did not appear to know each other before the scuffle on the train, according to NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper.
As the train continued on, the men came to blows, with the older man eventually holding the other one down with the weight of his body. Shocking video shows a woman in the train repeatedly strike the older man in the back as he exclaims, “You stabbed me? You stabbed me in the back?”
After a civilian breaks up the fighters, the younger man and woman back into a corner as blood appears to stain the 36-year-old’s shirt, the video shows. He points at the woman and again accuses her of stabbing him — then pulls a handgun out of his jacket pocket and walks toward the duo, whose relationship was not known.
“You stabbed me?” the furious man says again as he walks forward and brandishes his weapon. “You stabbed me?”
As straphangers see the gun, they run to the other end of the train car and duck for cover on the floor while one person repeatedly screams, “Let me out! Let me out!”
The video cuts away from the trio to show passengers’ panicked faces. Then a gunshot pops off just as the doors open and terrified commuters flood onto the platform. More shots are heard as the video-taker dashes off the train.
Off camera, the younger man fought with the gunman, got hold of the firearm and fired multiple shots, striking the older individual, Kemper said.
The chaos spilled out onto the Manhattan-bound A/C platform in the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station in Downtown Brooklyn just after 4:45 p.m., cops said.
“I was on the train and the train had stopped onto the platform, the doors opened and suddenly there were a rush of people who came and were screaming that someone had a gun,” Joyce Philippe, who was on the train in a different car, told the News.
Multiple officers on the platform heard the shots and gave the 36-year-old gunshot victim medical assistance.
“NYPD was telling everyone to get down and stay down while the train doors stayed open,” said Philippe. “It was an extremely terrifying moment and people were afraid for their lives.”
As officers “descended” on the platform, many had their guns drawn as confused straphangers stayed down, according to the witness.
“People were crying, praying, huddled amongst each other hoping that the situation would lead to someone being caught and not the worst-case scenario,” she said.
Medics rushed the 36-year-old, whose name was not immediately released, to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he was fighting for his life Thursday evening.
Police took the shooter into custody on the platform and recovered a firearm there, according to cops.
The video seen by The News shows the build-up to the confrontation, with the older man yelling profanities at the younger man and threatening, “I’ll beat you up.”
“F–k you, f–k the economy, f–k your race, I love my Blacks!” he is heard shouting in the younger man’s face. “Do something about it!”
As the older man continues his tirade, the younger person stands up to fight and the aggressor punches him, video shows. As the younger man gets pummeled, a woman appears to stab the older one.
Two MTA employees in the station recalled hearing about five shots.
“I ran and hid in a room,” said an employee. “I couldn’t bear it.”
A second video seen by The News showed the shooter lying on his stomach on subway platform stairs before moments before an officer cuffed him. Then the 36-year-old is seen lying on his back and surround by cops in the emptied-out train.
In a post on X, the MTA warned of delays on Manhattan-bound A and C trains while cops continued to investigate.
“When you bring a gun on the train and you start a fight, it’s not right and it’s absolutely outrageous,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said at the news briefing. “It’s why we have to keep fighting against guns.”
Major crime, which the NYPD classifies as murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary and grand larceny, are up 13.2% in transit this year, according to police data.
As of Sunday, there were eight shooting victims in the city’s transit system. By the same time last year, there was just one such victim.
Last week, Gov. Hochul announced the deployment of 750 members of the National Guard and 250 state and MTA police officers to city subway stations to conduct bag searches after a spate of violent incidents across the system.
“No one heading to their job or to visit family or to go to a doctor’s appointment should worry that the person sitting next to them possesses a deadly weapon,” Hochul said at the time.
The deployment came weeks after a shooting at a Bronx subway station that left one bystander dead and five others wounded.
No one from the new deployment was seen at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station on Thursday. Hochul’s office did not immediately answer a request for comment on the shooting.
Lieber on Thursday lauded her efforts in getting weapons out of the subway system.
“The governor is fighting these crazies who say guns should be able to be carried everywhere in the public space,” he said. “The real victims are the people I saw on those videos who were having a harrowing time because they’re on a train with somebody with a gun.”
