NEW YORK CITY — On Monday (Feb 12), New York City police reported a shooting incident at a Bronx subway station, leaving one person dead and five others wounded.
A spokesperson for the New York Police Department stated that as of now, no arrests have been made in connection with the shooting. The condition of the five injured individuals remains uncertain. According to local media, citing police sources, the injuries sustained by the five victims are reported as non-life threatening.
Despite this alarming incident, statistics indicate that crime on New York’s subway system remains relatively rare. With approximately 3.8 million trips taken on the system on an average weekday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority recorded 570 felony assaults throughout 2023.
Instances of shootings are particularly uncommon, with the last notable incident occurring in 2022 when a man armed with a handgun injured 10 people on a train passing through Brooklyn, marking the first mass shooting attack on the subway system since 1984. Another incident took place in May 2022, when a man fatally shot 48-year-old Daniel Enriquez on a Q train in what was described by police as an unprovoked attack.
Concerns regarding subway safety surged early in the pandemic as the subway crime rate spiked in early 2020. However, these rates returned to normal levels in 2021. Despite the decrease in crime, passengers’ perceptions of the subway’s safety remain apprehensive.
Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat and former city police captain, has taken steps to reassure nervous commuters by increasing police presence in subway stations.
