A 32-year-old man who took a gun from a second man and shot him in the head during an altercation on a moving train Thursday night appears to have acted in self-defense and will not be charged criminally for the moment, Brooklyn said. the prosecutor said Friday.
The shooting, which followed a frightening and chaotic confrontation in a crowded subway car during the evening rush, left the second man, Dajuan Robinson, 36, in critical but stable condition. The gun he was shot with was the one he brought on the train and brandished during the altercation, police said.
Oren Yaniv, a spokesman for prosecutor Eric Gonzalez, called the shooting “shocking and deeply upsetting.”
“The investigation into this tragic incident is ongoing,” Mr. Yaniv said in a statement, “but, at this stage, evidence of self-defense prevents us from filing criminal charges against the shooter.”
The confrontation between Mr. Robinson and the 32-year-old man, Younece Obuad, whom Mr. Robinson was harassing, occurred as the northbound A train arrived at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station in downtown Brooklyn, around 4:45 p.m., police said.
The men, whose names have not been officially released, were identified by three law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation and internal police files shared with The New York Times.
Mr. Robinson and Mr. Obuad did not know each other, police said, and it was not clear how the altercation began. But cellphone video of the episode that captured the minutes leading up to the shooting shows Mr. Robinson shouting threats and racist remarks at Mr. Obuad.
The video also appears to show a woman on the train stabbing Mr. Robinson before the shooting took place, and authorities were searching for her on Friday.
In the video, Mr Robinson is seen standing over Mr Obuad, walking back and forth in front of him and threatening him repeatedly, saying: «I’m going to beat you up.» Eventually, Mr. Obuad stands up and the two men confront each other.
Mr. Robinson sits Mr. Obuad in a chair, then gets up and hits him. At this point the woman rushes in and appears to stab Mr Robinson in the lower back. It is not clear whether the woman knew Mr Obuad before the meeting.
Mr. Robinson, blood seeping through his white T-shirt, pulls a gun from his coat and confronts both Mr. Obuad and the woman, who have moved to the end of the subway car.
As the panicked riders rush to the other end of the car, the video cuts away from the fight. Gunshots and screams can be heard.
At a news conference Friday, Jeffrey Maddrey, chief of the police department, said Mr. Robinson pulled out a gun during the argument and Mr. Obuad took it and shot Mr. Robinson.
The police released a video during the press conference showing Mr. Robinson entering a subway station without paying a ticket; we didn’t know which station. Police said Thursday that the altercation began after Mr. Obuad boarded the A train at Nostrand Avenue station.
“The evidence is still ongoing,” Chief Maddrey said Friday, adding, “Oftentimes we see people entering the subway station with the intent to cause harm, and they never pay the fare.”
Hermann Walz, a former state prosecutor and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, noted in an interview Friday before Mr. Gonzalez announced his decision that it was ultimately up to the prosecutor, based on the evidence, whether or not to lay charges. .
In June, a Brooklyn grand jury voted not to indict a man who fatally stabbed a passenger on a subway train. The man, Jordan Williams, 20, of Queens, stabbed Devictor Ouedraogo, 36, on a northbound J train, police said.
Mr. Ouedraogo had had an argument with other passengers, including Mr. Williams’ girlfriend, according to law enforcement. Witnesses said Mr. Ouédraogo threw the first punch, an official said.
In a radio interview Friday, Mayor Eric Adams said the shooting and preceding confrontation showed why state lawmakers should give the city more power to involuntarily remove seriously mentally ill people from the subway .
The events, he said, “really reinforce what I’ve been trying to do.”
The shooting occurred a week after Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed hundreds of National Guard members and state troopers to check bags on the subway. Ms Hochul described the move as an effort to deter crime and allay motorcyclists’ fears. The altercation also comes amid growing complaints that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that operates the subway, has not done enough to ensure worker safety.
A series of violent episodes in recent years have left some metro riders on edge.
In 2022, Michelle Alyssa Go was on a Times Square subway platform when a 61-year-old man pushed her from behind, knocking her to her death in front of a southbound train. A few months later, a mass shooting took place on the R train in Brooklyn.
Most recently, a 45-year-old crossing guard was shot and killed on a train in Brooklyn in January after intervening in a fight, and a 35-year-old man was killed and five other people were injured after an argument between teenagers. on a train in the Bronx last month.
In response, officials launched several anti-crime initiatives in the metro, including adding more police officers and increasing overtime pay, and began removing seriously mentally ill homeless people from the system.
Yet these high-profile crimes have cast a particularly long shadow, and MTA surveys consistently show that some riders think the system is unsafe.
But the statistics paint a nuanced picture of metro crime in recent years. The data is further complicated by an increase in attendance since the pandemic.
This year, for example, overall metro crime was up 13.2% through March 10 compared to the same period in 2023, but down 6.6% compared to the same period in 2022.
Annual data from recent years shows that major metro crime fell slightly in 2023 compared to the previous year, even as ridership increased. But some crimes, including felonious assaults, have exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
In a television interview last week, Ms. Hochul said it was public perception of subway crime, not statistics, that drove her decision to deploy the National Guard.
“We have seen a number of crimes, and again, not statistically significant, but psychologically significant,” she said, adding: “I can show you all the statistics in the world and tell you: “You should feel safe because the numbers are better.” «, but you’re the mom on the subway with your baby in a stroller.»
In a post published Thursday evening on the social media site more to increase safety in the metro.
On Friday, Ms. Hochul, in a statement announcing the first meeting of a transportation security working group, said she was «horrified by yesterday’s shooting.»
“The only way to solve the recent rise in metro crime is to work with all levels of government,” she said.
Mr. Robinson, who appears to have lived in Philadelphia in the past, was convicted of robbery in Queens in 2014 and sentenced to eight years in prison, according to court records. He was released in October 2019 and on parole until June 2022. He completed his supervised release period without incident, a state prison system spokesperson said.
On Thursday, when the train where the altercation took place arrived at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station, served by the A, C and G trains and with a police outpost, the officers heard gunshots and responded immediately, said Police Chief Michael Kemper. of transit, said at a press conference that day.
According to an internal police report, the first officer on the scene was inspecting the transit when he heard four gunshots as the train entered the station. The officer took cover and saw a man running out of a subway car with blood on his face. At that point, officers arrested him at gunpoint and placed him on his stomach, according to the report.
Officers saw a man lying under the seats of a subway car, motionless and surrounded by blood, according to the report. Police also found a firearm, a 38 caliber Ruger, a few meters away.
Mr Robinson had two stab wounds to his lower back and «penetrating» wounds to the right side of his neck, the left side of his chest, his right temple and just below his right eye, which was ruptured, according to the report.
Another video posted on shows Mr. Obuad sprawled on his stomach on the platform steps. As Mr. Obuad is led away in handcuffs, Mr. Robinson can be seen lying on his back through the subway car’s windows. He appears to move his head ever so slightly as the officers begin to deal with him.
Moments later, Mr Robinson can be seen lying on his side and facing the window, with a red stain visible on his back, as officers wearing white gloves examine him.
Chief Maddrey said the public response had been “amazing,” with videos recorded by people on the train giving us “further evidence that we needed to put together the questions that we had.”
Chelsia Rose Marcius, Jan Ransom, Amy Julia Harris, Matthew Haag, Maria Cramer And Olivia Bensimon reports contributed. Alain Delaquérière And Sheelagh McNeil contributed to the research.