Police focus on van renter in Brooklyn subway shooting probe | Agriculture

Authorities had been wanting on the man’s obvious social media posts, a few of which led officers to tighten safety for New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell known as the posts “concerning.”

The assault reworked the morning commute right into a scene of horror: a smoke-filled underground practice, an onslaught of not less than 33 bullets, screaming riders working by a station and bloodied folks mendacity on the platform as others administered assist.

Jordan Javier thought the primary popping sound he heard was a textbook dropping. Then there was one other pop, folks began shifting towards the entrance of the automobile, and he realized there was smoke, he stated.

When the practice pulled into the station, folks ran out and had been directed to a different practice throughout the platform. Passengers wept and prayed as they rode, Javier stated.

“I’m just grateful to be alive,” he stated.

Five gunshot victims had been in crucial situation however anticipated to outlive. At least a dozen individuals who escaped gunshot wounds had been handled for smoke inhalation and different accidents.

Sewell stated the assault was not being investigated as terrorism, however that she was “not ruling out anything.” The shooter’s motive was unknown.

Sitting in the again of the practice’s second automobile, the gunman tossed two smoke grenades on the ground, pulled out a Glock 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and began firing, Essig stated. A rider’s video exhibits an individual elevating an arm and pointing at one thing as 5 bangs sound.

Passengers in the smoke-filled automobile pounded on the door to an adjoining automobile, looking for to flee, rider Juliana Fonda, who was in that adjoining automobile, instructed the information website Gothamist. Fonda is a broadcast engineer for Gothamist’s proprietor, public radio station WNYC.

Investigators imagine the shooter’s gun jammed and stored him from firing extra, stated two legislation enforcement officers who weren’t licensed to debate the investigation and spoke on situation of anonymity.

Essig stated police discovered the weapon, together with prolonged magazines, a hatchet, detonated and undetonated smoke grenades, a black rubbish can, a rolling cart, gasoline and the important thing to a U-Haul van.

That key led investigators to James, who has addresses in Philadelphia and Wisconsin, the detective chief stated. The van was later discovered, unoccupied, close to a subway station the place investigators decided the gunman entered the practice system, Essig stated.

Rambling, profanity-filled YouTube movies apparently posted by James, who’s Black, are replete with Black nationalist rhetoric, violent language and bigoted feedback, a few of them directed at different Black folks. One, posted April 11, criticizes crime towards Black folks and says drastic motion is required to alter issues.

Several movies point out New York’s subways, and Adams is a recurring theme.

The assault unnerved a metropolis on guard a few rise in gun crimes and the ever-present risk of terrorism. It left some New Yorkers jittery about driving the nation’s busiest subway system and prompted officers to extend policing at transportation hubs from Philadelphia to Connecticut.

“This individual is still on the loose. This person is dangerous,” Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, warned at a noon information convention.

In Menlo, Iowa, President Joe Biden praised “the first responders who jumped in action, including civilians, civilians who didn’t hesitate to help their fellow passengers and tried to shield them.”

After folks streamed out of the practice, quick-thinking transit employees ushered passengers to a different practice throughout the platform for security, transit officers stated.

High college pupil John Butsikaris was driving that different practice and initially thought the issue was mundane till the following cease, when he heard screams for medical consideration and his practice was evacuated.

“I’m definitely shook,” the 15-year-old stated. “Even although I didn’t see what occurred, I’m nonetheless scared, as a result of it was like a couple of toes away from me, what occurred.”

New York City has confronted a spate of shootings and high-profile bloodshed in current months, together with on the town’s subways. One of probably the most stunning was in January, when a girl was pushed to her demise in entrance of a practice by a stranger.

Adams, a Democrat a bit over 100 days into his time period, has made cracking down on crime — particularly in the subways — an early focus of his administration, pledging to ship extra law enforcement officials into stations and platforms for normal patrols. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not any officers had been in the station when the shootings occurred.

The mayor, who’s isolating following a optimistic COVID-19 take a look at on Sunday, stated in a video assertion that the town “will not allow New Yorkers to be terrorized, even by a single individual.”

Balsamo reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Beatrice Dupuy, Karen Matthews, Julie Walker, Deepti Hajela, Michelle L. Price and David Porter in New York contributed to this report, and Michael Kunzelman contributed from College Park, Maryland.