A man has died after being shot in the chest onboard a New York City subway train as the gunman remains on the run.
The 48-year-old male victim was randomly attacked while riding in the last car of a northbound Q train over the Manhattan Bridge on Sunday morning.
The gunman fled from the train at the next stop, Canal Street in the city’s Chinatown, police say. The victim, who is a New York resident, was rushed to Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Police say that the suspect was “walking back and forth” in the same train car as the victim before shooting him “without provocation.”
The gunman escaped the scene before police arrived and no arrests have yet been made. No one else was injured in the attack, police say.
Investigators describe the shooter as a heavy-set male with a beard, wearing a dark-colored hoodie, grey sweatpants, and sneakers.
Videos posted on social media captured chaos around the station after the attack, including paramedics’ frantic efforts to save the victim.
“According to witnesses, the suspect was walking back and forth in the same train car and without provocation pulled out a gun and fired up the victim at close range,” NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey told reporters during a press conference at the Canal Street station on Sunday afternoon.
Police were reviewing security video to try to identify him, Chief Corey said.
“We pushed a lot of additional officers down into the subway system,” he said. “We continue to do that to patrol this very extensive train system that we have and we’re going to continue doing that.”
The shooting comes more than a month after a gunman shot 10 people onboard a subway train in Brooklyn in what officials have labelled a terror attack. The victims, who were aged between 16 to 60, all survived.
Frank James, 62, has pleaded not guilty to terrorism and other charges in connection to that attack.
Officials say that the incident has disrupted service for N and Q trains, which were temporarily rerouted to the R line.
The NYPD is continuing to conduct an investigation at Canal Street.
Mayor Eric Adams has vowed to deal with spiking crime rates in the city, which has seen a 42.7 per cent increase in major crimes in 2022 through 24 April compared to the same period in 2021, according to NYPD data.
