A man riding a subway train in Manhattan was shot in the leg during Monday evening’s rush hour in an attempted robbery, police said, and the suspect fled the scene.
The New York Police Department said the man was sitting in a northbound N train just before 5pm when a suspect armed with a gun approached and demanded his cell phone.
Police said the man with the gun fired when the passenger did not hand over his phone quickly enough, hitting the 42-year-old victim in his leg.
A man who was shot in the leg while on a New York City subway train can be seen sitting in an ambulance on Monday afternoon near Union Square
The man was shot when he was slow to hand his cellphone over as he sat on an N train heading to Union Square
The man was taken to hospital where he is said to be in stable condition
A man was shot in the leg on a Manhattan subway train on Monday afternoon
It happened on a crowded rush-hour N train at about 5pm when a 42-year-old man was approached by another man who was standing and who then demanded the victim’s cellphone
The train entered into the Union Square station, where the suspect fled onto the platform and ran out of the train station.
Thankfully, officers were at Union Square and applied a tourniquet to the victim’s leg to help stop the bleeding.
The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment and was in stable condition.
‘Last thing we need is for anyone to die, especially when we’re on the scene — so make sure to get that tourniquet on as fast as possible,’ NYPD officer Rajandeep Singh said to ABC7. ‘You know your first instinct is to run with the crowd, but we don’t get paid to run with the crowd.’
NYPD Assistant Chief Vincent Coogan is pictured speaking at the Union square subway
‘Things do happen,’ said NYPD Assistant Chief Vincent Coogan at a press conference. ‘They happen very little in the subway. The subways are safe. We are down in crime this year. One thing I can say is there are way too many guns out there.’
The passenger was not fast enough and was shot once by the suspect in his leg
As the train entered the Union Square subway station, the suspect fled the train and ran into the busy station. Officers are seen gathering evidence
Officers stationed in the precinct above the platform applied a tourniquet The victim was taken to a local hospital and was described as stable
‘I’m just happy that I actually came into work today and actually made a difference,’ NYPD officer Elijah Pardiu added. ‘There was no exit wound. My partner gave me his tourniquet and I applied it. He’s in the hospital right now. He’s going to be OK.’
‘We’re not going to put up with this kind of stuff. The subways are safe, statistically speaking, but they also have to feel safe,’ said Janno Lieber, Acting MTA Chair and CEO said at a press conference on Monday evening.
‘Things do happen,’ said NYPD Assistant Chief Vincent Coogan at a press conference. ‘They happen very little in the subway. The subways are safe. We are down in crime this year. One thing I can say is there are way too many guns out there.’
Police are now studying surveillance footage of the subway station. The NYPD are looking for a man carrying a black revolver and a dark-colored duffel bag.
The description is similar to that of a man who robbed a bank on Canal Street about 20 minutes before the subway robbery.
A map showing the New York City boroughs where crime has increased (in red) and decreased (in green) in September 2021 compared to the same month last year
Monday’s incident is one of many amid the city’s recent crime surge: Robberies are up by six percent this September, according to stark data released yesterday by the New York Police Department.
Overall, 2.6 percent more crimes were committed this September than in September of 2020, with 243 more reported incidents.
According to Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials, there was a 58.6% increase in major crimes last month.
It included a more than 88 percent jump in grand larceny and a 50 percent increase in felony assaults.
Over the last year, New York has been rocked by a wave of violent crime, fueling fears it is returning to the dark days of the ’70s and ’80s when murders were rife and the Big Apple earned the nickname Fear City.
Assaults have climbed by 18.5 percent, according to September’s NYPD data, and the department revealed it has made more than 3,400 gun arrests so far this year.
The data also reveals a concerning trend in other criminal activity, with car theft up 4.1 percent and grand larceny up .7 percent within the same timeframe.
Despite the mass amount of overtime hours and heavy police presence in certain communities, violent crime has still been on the rise
The shocking upward trend led former state Governor Andrew Cuomo to take the unprecedented step of launching the nation’s first ever state of emergency over gun violence back in July.
Now, the situation appears to be getting even worse with a staggering 393 gun arrests made last month alone, bringing the total number of gun arrests to 3,425 between January and the end of September.
This is a dramatic increase of 20.9 percent from the same period in 2020 when 2,832 gun arrests were made.
Last year, the city and the nation was reeling from COVID-19, civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd and political turmoil in the run-up to the presidential election.
Now, COVID-19 restrictions have almost all lifted, the US’s borders are poised to reopen to major tourist destinations and Mayor Bill de Blasio is trying to lure back office workers to the city.
Yet, violent and horrific subway attacks and gang-related gun battles are still a common occurrence in the streets of the city.
Mayor Bill de Blasio touted the rise in gun arrests as an ‘extraordinary success’ Wednesday rather than a concerning sign of a rise in firearm use
Violent crime has continued to escalate in New York City, with total crime up 2.6% in September 2021 compared to September 2020
Shocking surveillance footage taken earlier this month shows a woman jump up from a bench and shove the female victim as a train hurtled into the station.
Anthonia Egegbara, 29, of Queens, was charged with attempted murder over the incident. The victim Lenny Javier, 42, suffered a broken nose and chin but luckily survived.
Back in May, three innocent bystanders, including a four-year-old girl, were also shot by stray bullets in Times Square when a man started shooting indiscriminately in the middle of the day during an argument with someone else.
The young girl was struck in the leg, a 24-year-old woman was hit in her thigh and a 44-year-old woman was shot in the foot.
All survived the shooting, which sent shoppers and tourists fleeing for their lives.
In June, US Marine Samuel Poulin was shot in the back in the tourist hotspot.
He was walking through the area with his family when he was randomly struck by a stray bullet from an altercation involving other people. Poulin was not seriously injured.
The mayoral candidate frontrunner Eric Adams has vowed to tackle the escalating violence when de Blasio leaves office at the end of this term.
Horrifying surveillance video shows the moment when Anthonia Egegbara allegedly pushed a fellow commuter into a train at the Times Square subway station on Monday morning
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