(Reuters) – A gunman wearing a gas mask set off a smoke bomb and opened fire in a New York subway car on Tuesday, injuring 16 people and throwing the morning commute into chaos, officials said, in the latest violence in the city’s transit system.
Following are reactions from eyewitnesses and officials:
JOHN BUTSIKARES, 15, PASSENGER ON WAY TO SCHOOL
“There were people screaming for medical assistance. It was just a scary moment. It was, everyone was packed together, and I didn’t know what happened until after.”
NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ERIC ADAMS
“We will not allow New Yorkers to be terrorized, even by a single individual.”
HAITHAM TAHER, 20, BROOKLYN RESIDENT
“It feels like you’re not safe. You feel you’re not protected. We have a bunch of cops around, but you feel like they’re not doing anything.”
NEW YORK GOVERNOR KATHY HOCHUL
“We say no more, no more mass shootings, no more disrupting lives. … We are sick and tired of reading headlines about crime.”
LOCAL RESIDENT IDENTIFIED AS KAREEME – NBC NEW YORK 4 NEWS.
“I saw maybe a 16-year-old kid, he was sitting on the steps coming out of the train station, and he had a bullet in his knee.”
NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT COMMISSIONER KEECHANT SEWELL
“An individual on that train donned what appeared to be a gas mask, he then took a canister out of his bag and opened it. The train at that time began to fill with smoke. He then opened fire.”
JULIANA FONDA, BROADCAST ENGINEER -GOTHAMIST
“The reaction of the passengers was terrifying because they were trying to get into our car away from something that was happening in the back of the train. None of us knew what was going on but people were pounding and looking behind them, running.”
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Maria Caspani and Jonathan Allen in New York, Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
