According to NBC New York, the suspect was arrested in Manhattan. New York City Police have announced an impending media briefing.
On Tuesday, the New York police had released photos of the individual because the key to a van, found abandoned in Brooklyn, was discovered at the crime scene.
And on Wednesday, New Yorkers received a message on their phones:urgent” asking them to deliver any useful element to the investigators. A reward of 50,000 dollars was put on the table.
On Youtube
The man had a YouTube page, called “prophetoftruth88” (prophet of truth) deleted Wednesday morning for “violation of community rules” of the site. He posted multiple videos there where we see him launching long tirades, sometimes rambling and vehement, in which he evokes racial issues, insecurity in New York, especially in the subway, and attacks gay people, or new mayor Eric Adams.
While the hunt for the shooter, described as “dangerous” the day before, continued, millions of New Yorkers took to the subway, one of the largest networks in the world, to go to work, some posting selfies on the social networks to show that life was getting back to normal.
“We don’t get up in the morning thinking we won’t make it home or that we’re going to hurt ourselves going there. It’s New York, the city never stops”explained to AFP Sony Washington, a 35-year-old machinist, while worrying that the suspect is still in the wild.
“I always pay attention to my surroundings since September 11 (2001). But there have been more incidents on the docks recently, so I pay more attention”, added Laura Swalm, 49, who lives in neighboring New Jersey.
33 bullets fired
Tuesday morning, around 08:30 (12:30 GMT), at a time when the metro trains are crowded, the individual, who was wearing a gas mask, lit two devices which smoked the car, then shot at the passengers while as the train entered the station.
“We were really lucky that it wasn’t much more serious”, underlined the chief of the police of New York (NYPD), Keechant Sewell, summing up the relief of the authorities. The suspect fired 33 bullets.
“All you see is black smoke, and I turned to the right, and I saw this guy with a mask”testified on CNN one of the victims, Hourari Benkada, from his hospital bed.
“The shooting lasted about a minute (…). I’ve never heard so many shots coming out of a handgun… (…) He probably had extended magazines or some other weapon fire“, added this man, hit in the knee. On the spot, the investigators found a handgun and three chargers.
The attack came as New York has faced a spike in crime since the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of homicides rising from 319 in 2019 to 488 in 2021, although the annual toll remains well in below the more than 2,000 per year recorded in the early 1990s.
Shootings have also remained on the rise since the start of the year, going from 260 to 296 in the first quarter of 2022, according to police figures, some of which have made an impression, such as the death on Friday of a 17-year-old girl. , shot dead outside a high school in the Bronx.
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