A Brooklyn subway shooting on Sunday afternoon left one police officer and three others wounded in an apparent incident of friendly fire, law enforcement sources said.
The incident happened at about 3:04 p.m. on Sept. 15 at the Sutter Avenue station on the L line in Brownsville, near the corner of Sutter and Van Sinderen Avenues. The shooting stemmed from a fare evasion suspect charging at police officers with a knife just after an L train pulled into the stop.
What followed, as Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey explained during a press conference at Brookdale University Hospital, was a chaotic scene in which the suspect, one officer and two bystanders were apparently wounded by shots fired at the suspect.
“I don’t like to use that term friendly fire, but absolutely we believe at this time that our officers were the only ones who discharged weapons at this time,” Maddrey said. “I don’t know if that’ll change. So everyone that was struck this afternoon, we believe, was by our officers.”
The suspect, the wounded officers and the two bystanders are all expected to recover from their injuries. Interim Police Commissioner Tom Donlon, who took the job Friday following the resignation of Edward Caban, vowed “a full and thorough investigation” into Sunday’s shooting would take place.
“We will be working through the timeline of today, but make no mistake, the events that occurred on the Sutter Avenue Station Platform and the results of an armed perpetrator who was confronted by our officers doing the job we asked them to do,” interim Commissioner Donlon said. “There will be a full and thorough investigation conducted into this incident, as we always do in cases like this. But right now, we are grateful that our officer will be okay.”
Maddrey explained that Sunday’s incident unfolded when two officers assigned to the 73rd Precinct, on patrol at the Sutter Avenue station mezzanine, observed the male suspect walk through the gate without paying.
“The officers immediately follow him his three flights up to the platform of the elevator train line,” Maddrey said. “The officers are asking him to stop the mail. He’s refusing to stop. At a certain point on the platform the male mutters the words, ‘You know, I’m going to kill you if you don’t stop following me.'”
Shortly thereafter, the chief of department explained, the officers became aware that the suspect had a knife in his pocket. “The male basically challenged the officers, ‘No, you’re going to have to shoot me,'” Maddrey explained.
At that point, a Manhattan-bound L train pulled into the station. Maddrey said the suspect hopped on board the train, and both officers followed. They then deployed their Tasers, both of which failed, according to Maddrey.
The suspect then exited the train car and returned to the platform. Maddrey said he then charged at the officers with the knife, prompting them to open fire.
“They fire multiple rounds, and the male goes down. They’re able to handcuff him and subdue him. While they’re subduing him, one of the officers realized that he’s hit as well,” Maddrey said. “The officer was hit, but didn’t stop. He continued to do his duty. He helped his partner put the man in handcuffs.”
The officers then realized two bystanders, a man and woman, were both struck by the gunfire. Additional arriving police officers rendered aid before EMS rushed all four wounded individuals to Brookdale Hospital.
Maddrey said the suspect “has a significant arrest history” and is “someone who has a history of mental illness.” The investigation remains ongoing.
The NYPD advised residents to avoid the crime scene while the investigation is underway. The MTA also reported that L trains are skipping the Sutter Avenue station, and that some L trains bound for Canarsie are terminating at either Bedford Avenue, Broadway Junction or Atlantic Avenue.
It’s the second shooting involving a police officer to occur in Brooklyn this weekend. On Friday, police shot a man during a standoff inside an apartment in East Flatbush.
In that incident, police said, Vilmond Jean-Baptiste, 38, who was wanted for questioning in connection with several shootings in the borough, allegedly charged at cops with a knife, leading officers to shoot him dead. No officers were injured in that incident.
Brownsville has also seen a dramatic uptick in shootings in 2024. Earlier this year, the NYPD surged additional officers into the community in an effort to quell the violence and avoid a summer shooting outbreak.
Transit crime has also been down in recent months citywide after the NYPD surged additional officers into the subway system to combat fare evasion and other crimes.
Updated at 6:51 p.m.
