NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said Friday that prosecutors aren't currently charging the man who disarmed and shot another man on a crowded Downtown Brooklyn subway train Thursday, saying there's "evidence of self-defense."
In a statement, Brooklyn D.A. spokesman Oren Yaniv wrote: "Yesterday's shooting inside a crowded subway car was shocking and deeply upsetting. The investigation into this tragic incident is ongoing but, at this stage, evidence of self-defense precludes us from filing any criminal charges against the shooter."
The NYPD has said the 36-year-old man who was shot in the head had pulled the gun on a 32-year-old man, who disarmed him and shot him with it. The former was taken into custody, while the latter was hospitalized in critical condition.
The chaotic shooting unfolded during the Thursday evening rush, sending riders scrambling for cover as gunfire rang out around 4:45 p.m. in a dispute between two men on an A-line train approaching the Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets station.
NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said Thursday that the 36-year-old pulled a gun on the 32-year-old, who managed to take possession of the gun and shoot the first man in the head.
Cellphone video shows panicked subway riders screaming, crying and huddling on the train as police swarm the platform with guns drawn at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop.
Witnesses told cops that the man who was shot was acting "aggressive and provocative" before he pulled the gun. Indeed, the man who shot him indicated he was acting in self-defense when he pulled the trigger, officials said.
Adding yet another layer to the story Friday, the NYPD revealed that extended video shows a woman—who was apparently with the 32-year-old shooter—had also been involved in the altercation and may have played a key role in escalating it by stabbing the 36-year-old before he brandished the gun.
"It looks like she had a sharp object and cut the 36-year-old male with that sharp object," Kemper said. "We obtained that video after the press conference. Detectives have it and so does the D.A.'s office."
Police are still searching for the woman, who fled the scene. While no video of her had been released as of Friday, police asked anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
The man who was shot remained in critical condition Friday at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.
The NYPD also released video Friday showing the man who was shot entering the transit system at the Nostrand Avenue stop in Bedford–Stuyvesant. They said they released the video to show that, once again, a subway crime has been linked back to someone who dodged the fare.
"Often times we see people entering the subway system, looking to cause harm—and they never pay the fare," NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey told reporters, adding the department would continue to crack down on fare evasion and quality of life crimes.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber decried the violence at Thursday's press conference, saying, "The real victims are the people I saw in those videos who were having a harrowing time because they’re on a train with somebody with a gun."
Lieber said it was "outrageous" that someone would bring a gun on a train and start a fight. He said it showed the importance of current city and state efforts to get guns off the street.
Lieber told 1010 WINS' Susan Richard on Friday that riders "need a sense of safety ... we need to fight back against guns, we need to get mental health cases into treatment, and we need the police to be as present as they are."
"Subway crime is 2% of crime in New York, which itself has pretty low crime for a big city, but it has a huge impact on New Yorkers' sense of safety," Lieber said.
Just last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed 750 members of the National Guard and 250 state and MTA police to assist the NYPD with bag checks at entrances to busy stations. She acknowledged that calling in uniformed service members was as much about sending a public message as it was about making mass transit safer.
The deployment was in reaction to a 46% increase in transit crime in January, as well as high-profile crimes in the subway this year, including two fatal shootings on Bronx trains in February, and a fatal shooting on a Brooklyn train in January.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.