Relief after the shots with 23 injured in the New York subway: A suspected perpetrator has been caught – and remains in custody for the time being. Nevertheless, much is still unclear.
After the dramatic attack in the New York subway with shots and at least 23 injuries, the suspected perpetrator who was arrested remains in custody for the time being.
Judge Roanne Mann said at a first brief hearing at a Brooklyn borough court on Thursday that there will be no possibility of release on bail, at least for the time being. The 62-year-old man was accompanied by a defense attorney and responded briefly to formal questions from the judge.
The defense attorney asked that her client be given a psychiatric evaluation and medication for leg cramps in prison. The New York-born and most recently resident of Philadelphia and Wisconsin, who had previously been arrested multiple times for other offenses, is said to be charged with a “terrorist or other violent attack” on public transit. If convicted, he faces a life sentence. According to initial investigation results, he acted alone. The background to the crime was initially unclear.
Suspect caught in Manhattan
The man was arrested in Manhattan on Wednesday. “My fellow New Yorkers, we have him,” Mayor Eric Adams, who was connected via video from isolation because of a corona infection, said at a press conference. “We were able to shrink his world quickly,” added Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell. “He had nowhere else to run to.”
The authorities suspect that several publications on social media come from the man. In it he complains, among other things, about New York, Mayor Adams and homelessness. Adams’ police protection was therefore initially increased as a precaution.
The man is accused of opening fire on a subway train in the Brooklyn borough during the morning rush hour on Tuesday. The man was sitting in a back corner in the second car of an N train bound for Manhattan between the 59 St and 36 St stations, authorities said. He wore an orange-green construction worker’s vest, a corona protective mask, a gray hooded sweater and a neon-green construction worker’s helmet. He put on a kind of gas mask, opened two canisters from which smoke or fog streamed, and then opened fire. In total he shot 33 times.
At least nine people in the hospital
At least 23 people were injured, ten of them by gunfire. Among the injured were a 15-year-old boy and women and men in their 40s. According to media reports, at least nine people were still in the hospital on Wednesday.
After the crime, the man initially fled on another subway. Authorities tracked him down for renting a pickup truck, the key to which was found at the scene along with a semi-automatic handgun, several magazines, a small axe, liquid suspected to be gasoline, and a bag with fireworks. The pickup truck was later found parked in another part of Brooklyn.
With great effort, the police searched for the man, who was first listed as a “person of interest” and then as an official suspect. On Wednesday, the emergency services then got a tip that he was in the East Village in southeast Manhattan. The police found him there. According to US media reports, the suspect also called the police himself. He did not resist when he was arrested. A reward of $50,000 (around €46,000) had previously been offered for information leading to the arrest of the suspect.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220414-99-912734/7 (By Christina Horsten, dpa)
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