Man arrested for Brooklyn subway shooting acted in ‘self-defense,’ set free: NYPD

The man accused of shooting a 36-year-old MTA commuter in the head during a bloody brawl on a packed Brooklyn A train was set free Friday as prosecutors determined he acted “in self defense,” officials said.

At the same time, police were actively searching for a woman who took part in the Thursday afternoon fight and was caught on video stabbing the victim before he was shot, cops said.

“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,” Brooklyn District Attorney’s office spokesman Oren Yaniv said about the shooting Friday.

The bloody clash, Yaniv said, was “shocking and deeply upsetting.”

Police were still looking for a 5-foot-2 woman wearing a black shirt with the word “Pink” in white lettering, who was caught on video apparently stabbing the aggressor during a fight on a packed Manhattan-bound A train before the man pulled a gun, cops said.

The woman appeared to be with a 32-year-old man who wrestled the gun from the older straphanger and shot him twice in the head, cops said.

Speaking to reporters outside the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station in downtown Brooklyn Friday morning, NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said the woman was “involved in the incident.”

“She had a sharp object and cut [the victim] with the sharp object,” Kemper said.

The wounded man, a parolee who sparked the fight, remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition Friday.

He was caught on video yelling at the man who ultimately shot him, screaming “You think its OK for you people to beat up cops?” leading some to believe the victim mistook the other man for an asylum seeker like the ones accused of assaulting two police officers outside a Times Square shelter.

“He thinks you’re a migrant,” a woman can be heard screaming on the video, which was viewed by the Daily News. “He thinks your an immigrant.”

The armed victim, who was caught on camera coming into the system through an exit gate and avoiding the fare, has a criminal record with arrests for grand larceny, robbery and a domestic criminal mischief, police sources with knowledge of the case said.

He was convicted in 2014 for a first degree robbery he committed in Queens, according to court papers. After five years in prison, he was put on parole, which ended in 2022.

The victim currently lives in Brooklyn in supportive housing. Cops did not immediately disclose the wounded man’s name as they track down family members.

If he survives, he may be charged with weapons possession for bringing both a gun and a knife into the transit system, police sources said.

The victim was already on the train when he began arguing with the younger man, who got on the train at a Bedford-Stuyvesant stop.

Prior to the shooting, the older man was seen on video yelling at the other passenger before the two squared up to fight, the video shows.

The duo did not appear to know each other before the scuffle on the train, Kemper said.

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 the woman 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 brawlers, the younger man and woman back into a corner as blood appears to stain the back of 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.

Panicked straphangers run to the other side of the train car, some cowering on the ground worried about getting hit by an errant shot.

“Let me out! Let me out!” one straphanger is pleading, according to the video.

Somehow, the younger man managed to wrestle the gun away from the victim and shoot at him four times. The victim was hit twice in the head, once in the neck and once in the chest, police said. He was also stabbed twice in the back.

Cops doing an inspection at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station heard the shots and ran down onto the platform. They found the shooter exiting the train car with blood on his face and took him into custody.

The shooter immediately asked for a lawyer and wouldn’t talk about the shooting, sources said. When prosecutors declined to file charges, he was let go.

The victim was found lying under the seats, covered in blood. He was rushed to New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hosptial where he underwent surgery and was in critical but stable condition.

The gun, a .380 Ruger, was recovered at the scene.

Speaking on NY1 Friday, Mayor Adams said the aggressor now fighting for his life appeared to have been suffering from a “severe mental illness.”

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.