A man was shot dead on a crowded Midtown subway platform Saturday after a dispute turned violent, the seventh transit murder this year as riders say they no longer feel safe.
Gunfire erupted at 12:21 p.m. on the northbound platform at the 7th Avenue station at 53rd Street in Midtown West, moments after an E train pulled in and opened its doors. The victim was hit in the chest, given CPR on the platform, rushed to Bellevue Hospital in cardiac arrest, and pronounced dead.
Police have not recovered a weapon. The suspect is still at large and described as armed and dangerous. The Post reported that NYPD officials called the attack targeted, not random, and that the victim, the gunman, and a third person had been locked in some type of dispute before the shots.
New Yorkers who ride these trains every day are left with another body on a platform and another gunman walking free. Transit murders are up 75% compared with the same stretch last year.
NYPD Deputy Chief Keith Shine said the three people argued on the northbound platform, though the exact cause is not yet clear. An NYPD spokesperson put it bluntly.
"Nothing random between these two individuals."
Witness Mauricio Marroquin, a breakfast attendant heading home to Queens after his morning shift, heard two pops roughly eight seconds apart. He told reporters the victim looked like a working man in a blazer.
"He was dressed in a blazer, looked like he was coming from work or something, bro. Going to work or coming from work. It was two shots, man. He only got hit with one, like, that’s weird. And they were eight seconds apart, man. That’s weird."
Marroquin described the scramble that followed.
"Everybody was running."
He also saw a bystander try to keep the wounded man conscious, urging him to stay awake while first responders worked chest compressions on the crowded platform. EMS then raced the victim to Bellevue, where he was pronounced dead.
Sudden street violence has become a grim pattern in the city, including a fatal Times Square knife attack that cut down a Bank of America vice president.
Fox News reported that the gunman displayed a firearm, fired, and fled northbound on foot along 7th Avenue. Security images show a person of interest in a red hoodie or tracksuit, red pants, a black puffy vest, and a black face covering that appeared to be a balaclava. No arrest has been announced.
Witness Hassen Pinchback described the panic when the train doors opened and the shots came.
"When the train doors opened, that’s when you heard pop pop pop."
Pinchback also said the scene felt like a stampede as people ran for cover. Police are still searching. The weapon has not been found.
Families across the boroughs already know what unchecked violence looks like at home, from cases like a Bronx mother killed after being pushed from a high-rise with her infant left fighting for life.
Officials count this shooting as the seventh murder in the New York City transit system so far this year. Over the same period last year, the system saw four. That is a 75% jump in the data through Sunday.
MTA Chief Security Officer Michael Kemper condemned guns underground and pointed to the state’s legal fight over carrying firearms in the subway.
"Guns have no place in transit, which is why we’ve strongly supported New York State’s legal fight to make sure it’s illegal to carry them in the subway system."
Kemper also said the perpetrators should face maximum consequences and that the MTA is coordinating with the NYPD. Those words land harder when the suspect is still free and the gun is still missing.
Commuters are not convinced the speeches match the platforms. Leslie, 50, a lifelong New Yorker and housekeeper from the Bronx, spoke for a lot of riders who hear safety promises and still ride scared.
"To be honest I’m not really sure how effective it’s been. I hear a lot of talk. So, I don’t know if there is actual action behind it."
She went further.
"I don’t feel safe in the city, and I absolutely don’t feel safe on the train at all. Not even a little bit."
Priscilla Rodriguez, 35, a data analyst from Rhode Island visiting her sister in Midtown, asked the question many tourists now quietly carry.
"Are they going to have to, like, put in metal detectors in the subway now?"
She added that people should be able to go about daily life without fear. That basic expectation is exactly what keeps failing on these platforms.
City crime fights also stay tangled in politics, including pressure campaigns such as when socialists demanded the NYPD commissioner be fired after an ICE-related shooting involving a reputed gang member.
A tourist-heavy Midtown station. A working man in a blazer. Two shots seconds apart. CPR on the tiles. A suspect in a red tracksuit disappearing up 7th Avenue. Police say it was targeted. Riders say they still do not feel protected.
The MTA talks about keeping guns out of transit. The NYPD hunts a man it calls armed and dangerous. The body count underground keeps rising. Lawful New Yorkers who just need to get to work are the ones left living with the gap between the press conference and the platform.
Until the people who shoot on subway platforms are caught fast and punished hard, more riders will keep asking the same plain question Leslie already answered: where is the action behind the talk?
