NYC subway attacker shot with own gun appeared to believe targeted couple were migrants
NEW YORK — The man who sparked a fight on a Brooklyn subway train last week only to be shot with his own gun apparently believed the couple he targeted were recent migrants, police noted Thursday.
“You think you can come here and beat up cops?” the 36-year-old aggressor exclaimed at a seated man in the buildup to the March 14 rush-hour clash on a Manhattan-bound A train.
The belligerent man was apparently referring to the Jan. 27 caught-on-camera attack on two NYPD officers outside a Times Square migrant shelter that sparked widespread outrage.
During the man’s tirade, a woman says to the seated man, “He thinks we’re migrants,” Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny noted at a Thursday news briefing.
The subway aggressor — identified by cops as Dajuan Robinson — remains hospitalized and is fighting for his life after he ended up being shot in the head, chest and stomach, Kenny said.
“If he does survive his injuries, he is going to be charged with criminal possession of a weapon,” Kenny added.
The man targeted 32-year-old Younce Obuad and a woman, identified by her nickname Unique, around 5:30 p.m., police said.
The older man berated and harassed Obuad until he stood up and took a fighting stance, video viewed by the New York Daily News shows.
As the two men tussled, Unique pulled out “an unknown item” and stabbed the 36-year-old in the back.
“We do know he has two puncture wounds to his back,” said Kenny. “Right now we have not identified (the woman). We know that she and Younce Obuad, the eventual shooter, are known to each other, so we’re working with that.”
After the attacker pulled out a gun, Obuad managed to get hold of it and shot him multiple times as terrified passengers stampeded off the train and onto the platform at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station, cops said.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office declined to press charges against Obuad, the Daily News reported last week.
“The investigation into this tragic incident is ongoing but, at this stage, evidence of self-defense precludes us from filing any criminal charges against the shooter,” DA spokesman Oren Yaniv said about the shooting Friday.
Once police identify the woman who was with Obuad, detectives will bring the possible case against her to the DA, who will decide whether or not she too was acting in self-defense, Kenny said.
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