A man suspected of shooting multiple people on a subway train and platform on Tuesday morning is still at large and dangerous, New York officials said in a press conference.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) and top officials from New York City updated the public in a press conference early Tuesday afternoon after a suspect shot at least ten people in an attack on the New York City subway.
New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said, contrary to early reports, that no explosive devices were found on the subway or platform. She said that the incident was not being investigated as an act of terror, and that while multiple people were injured, some critically, nobody as of yet has died from the attack.
“Just before 8:24 this morning, as a Manhattan-bound N-train waited to enter the 36th street station, an individual on that train donned what appeared to be a gas mask,” Sewell said, describing the incident. “He then took a canister out of his bag and opened it. The train at that time then began to fill with smoke. He then opened fire, striking multiple people in the subway and on the platform.”
Sewell said that the suspect is still at large. Police are searching for a heavy-set black male about 5’5” and wearing a gray sweatshirt and green vest similar to those worn by construction workers. Later in the press conference, Sewell said that authorities are still looking into the motive of the shooter, and she said that police are investigating the apparent failure of the subway camera system to catch the violence.
Hochul stepped up to the podium after Sewell to condemn the violence and call for an end to the “surge in crime” that New Yorkers have suffered for the past two years since the onset of COVID-19 and the extended mass disruption to New Yorkers’ everyday lives.
“This morning, ordinary New Yorkers woke up in anticipation of a relatively normal day. They left their homes en route to school, en route to their jobs, and to a normal day, as I mentioned. That sense of tranquility and normal-ness was disrupted, brutally disrupted, by an individual so cold hearted and depraved of heart that they had no caring about the individuals that they assaulted as they simply went about their daily lives,” Hochul said.
“This individual is still on the loose. This person is dangerous. We are asking individuals to be very vigilant and alert,” she added.
Hochul said she had spoken with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and that the two of them were committed to cracking down on crime in the city.
“We say no more. No more mass shootings. No more disrupting lives. No more creating heartbreak for people just trying to live their lives as normal New Yorkers,” she said. “And we are sick and tired of reading headlines about crime, whether they’re mass shootings, or the loss of a teenage girl, or a 13-year-old. It has to stop.
“I’m committing the full resources of our state to fight this surge of crime, this insanity that’s seizing our city because we want to get back to normal. It has been a long hard two years. That’s what we crave, that sense of stability, that normalcy. And this is what the mayor and I are going to continue to work towards,” she added.