The 32-year-old man behind the Brooklyn subway shooting on March 14 will not be charged at this time because it appeared to be a case of self-defense, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office.
“Yesterday’s shooting inside a crowded subway car was shocking and deeply upsetting,” said Oren Vaniv, a spokesperson for Gonzalez, in a statement issued on March 15. “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.”
Meanwhile, police brass sought to tie the horrific episode with fare evasion — noting at a Friday press conference at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets station in Downtown Brooklyn that the 36-year-old man who apparently instigated the fight with the 32-year-old man, which led to the shooting, had apparently entered the subway system through an open emergency exit gate, skirting the fare.
“It’s important that we enforce that service and people who are not paying the fare, oftentimes we see people enter the subway station looking to cause harm and they never pay the fare,” Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said. “So this is why we stress to our officers it’s important to address theft of service.”
The 36-year-old man remains in critical condition at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital after being shot in the head with his own gun by the 32-year-old man just after 4:45 p.m. on March 14 on board a Manhattan-bound A train as it pulled into the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets station.
The entire episode began after the 32-year-old man boarded the A express train at the Nostrand Avenue stop. Within seconds, cops said, the 36-year-old man confronted him and became aggressive.
Video of the incident indicated that the 36-year-old man began shouting racist threats at the 32-year-old man, apparently believing him to be a migrant. Eventually, the 32-year-old man got up from his seat after the 36-year-old man repeatedly threatened to beat him up. Nearby passengers then moved away from the escalating incident.
Police said that led to a physical struggle between both men; the video shows the 36-year-old man punching the 32-year-old man down, then pinning him briefly against seats. The 36-year-old man also threatened a woman who attempted to break up the fight.
After another man intervened, the two men separated. But when the 36-year-old man realized he was bleeding from the back, he accused the 32-year-old man of stabbing him — then reached into his jacket and pulled out a firearm. That sent passengers scrambling to the rear of the car and ducking to protect themselves, in fear of gunfire.
By then, the train had pulled into the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets station. Passengers screamed to be let out of the car when a shot was fired. Several more shots are heard after the doors opened, and passengers ran out of the car onto the platform.
Content warning – full video of the incident on the A train.
A man accosting two people sitting on the train threatening to beat them up, says “You think you people gunna beat up cops?”
A woman says to the person he’s accosting “He thinks you’re a migrant.” pic.twitter.com/kuvYLM1zo9
— Talia Jane ❤️🔥 (@taliaotg) March 15, 2024
Inside the car, the 36-year-old man had been shot in the head, with his own gun, by the 32-year-old man. Police apprehended the 32-year-old man on the platform, and came to the aid of the wounded man.
The shooting happened at a time in which subway crime is under the public microscope. Both the NYPD, the MTA Police and National Guard have surged in upwards of 2,000 combined members underground daily to help stop and deter crime in the wake of three deadly shootings in the system earlier this year.
After a January spike, transit crime fell in February. Most of the more serious offenses underground involve property crimes such as robberies and grand larcenies.
In the wake of Thursday’s shooting, MTA Chair and CEO Lieber said the event demonstrated the need for police “omnipresence” in the system to quickly catch criminals and keep the system safe.
“Thank God for omnipresence, thank God there were officers on the platform who were inspecting, and that they made the arrest,” Lieber said at a March 14 press conference following the shooting. “This system is going to make us safer, but today, we have to think about all those who were impacted by this.”
Police brass said Friday that efforts to crack down on fare evasion — which some advocates have criticized leads to racial profiling and unequal policing — are essential toward combating more violent crime in the system, as the department has seen many individuals stopped for evading the fare have outstanding arrest warrants for serious felonies.
“Like the chief said, we are seeing a small group of individuals that we catch during these fare evasion operations that are recidivists, that have warrants, that have guns, that have knives and they don’t pay the fare,” Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said. “Like I have people who said before ‘small things as walking through an exit gate or hopping over the turnstile leads to big things.”
