The family of a Goldman Sachs worker shot dead in a subway train in New York have a sobering message for their fellow residents — “the city is not safe”.
On Sunday, an unidentified gunman shot and killed 48-year-old Daniel Enriquez in what New York police department (NYPD) officials called an unprovoked attack.
The shooting took place around 11.40am on a Q-train travelling over the Manhattan Bridge.
The gunman was pacing the train’s last car “and, without provocation, pulled out a gun and fired it at the victim at close range,” Kenneth Corey, NYPD’s chief of department, said, citing witnesses.
The shooter fled the train at the Canal Street station in Manhattan and remains at large, with police reviewing security footage to identify him.
Decrying the gun violence meted out against her brother, Griselda Vile slammed mayor Eric Adams.
“I wish you guys would go back to Mayor Adams and tell him the city is not safe,” she told the New York Post. “My brother just became a statistic on the way to the city. He was shot at close range.”
“I want every New Yorker to realise this could be your reality tomorrow — your worst nightmare could come true,” she said. “I don’t want this to be an attack on the mayor. I want him to focus on New York as a community.”
Her husband, Glenn Vile, also lashed out at the mayor asking him to “get crime off the streets”.
The subway shooting comes a month after 62-year-old Frank James was charged with terrorism on a mass transportation system after allegedly opening fire inside a Brooklyn subway train, wounding 10 people.
In January, a man suffering from schizophrenia fatally shoved a woman in front of a subway train. The accused, 61-year-old Martial Simon, was later found unfit to stand trial.
Since taking office on 1 January, Mayor Adam has made cracking down on violent crime a focus of his administration.
The former New York City police captain, who rode the subway to City Hall on his first day as mayor, later said he did not feel safe on the train after encountering a yelling passenger and said the city needs to tackle “actual crime” and the “perception of crime”.
Additional reporting by agencies
