A gunman wearing a gas mask detonated a smoke bomb in the New York City subway system on Tuesday morning before opening fire on passengers. There were 16 injuries, including 10 from gunshot wounds, police said, which are actively searching for the suspect.
The shooting is not currently “investigated as an act of terrorism,” City Police Chief Keechant Sewell said.
The shooter detonated a smoke device in the New York City subway before opening fire on the passengers. Here, a passenger helps an injured person. [Will B Wylde – Keystone]Homemade photos and videos showed pools of blood and people lying on the floor of a subway train, as well as on the platform of the “36th Street” station in the Brooklyn borough, in a smoky atmosphere.
A fire brigade spokesman told AFP that “unprimed explosive devices” were found. According to a police tweet, “there are no usable explosive devices at this time.”
A major safety device was put in place between 36th Street and 4th Avenue in Brooklyn, where the events took place.
A wanted man
Police are looking for a man wearing a gas mask and orange overalls like those worn by construction workers in the megacity of nearly 9 million people, the largest city in the United States, according to several media outlets, including NBCNewYork and The New York Times. .
President Joe Biden, who announced new anti-gun measures on Monday, was notified of the shooting and the White House has offered assistance to New York authorities, executive spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
“At 8:27, police received an 911 call from a person who was shot and killed on the subway” in Brooklyn, a NYPD spokeswoman told AFP, who asked the public to avoid the area.
Shooting on the rise
New York State Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul said she was monitoring the situation and had been briefed on the investigation into the event.
Elected on promises of safety, the new Democratic mayor of New York, Eric Adams, launched a plan in late January to counter the proliferation of firearms, after the death of two policemen killed during an intervention. But other gun dramas have made headlines since then.
For the first quarter of 2022 — January 1 to early April — the number of shootings and shootings in New York City increased from 260 to 296 over the same period in 2021, according to NYPD data released last week.
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