It is rush hour on public transport Tuesday morning in New York and many commuters take the N line of the subway, which connects the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn.
In a train on this line, which runs towards Manhattan, sat a stocky black man, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and a reflective safety vest, a type common on construction sites. . He is carrying a backpack.
The underground subway stops at the 59th Street station in Brooklyn.
When the train sets off again, the individual prepares to carry out his attack. He takes action as he approaches the next stop, the 36th Street station, still in Brooklyn: he puts a gas mask on his face and takes two small smoke grenades out of his bag, hitting the mechanism.
As the devices began to emit thick smoke, the suspect grabbed his handgun, a 9mm Glock, and opened fire on the occupants of the car. Many people are affected. The shooter is equipped with three high-capacity magazines. He unloads his pistol 33 times.
Horrified, the passengers rush to the bottom of the car. They try to get away by passing into the next car, whose door is blocked and they pound on it.
– Underground panic –
Inside this second car, the passengers see through the glass these panicked faces and are themselves overcome by fear.
When the doors finally open, the victims of the attack rush out of the car, while thick smoke fills the space.
Another train, from line R, is at the same time on the opposite platform. Its passengers witness a scene of chaos. Several of them are even hit by the shots. In all, ten people were shot and 13 others were injured by falling or suffocating.
“When the doors of train N opened, a huge cloud of smoke came out of the train. I saw people running away from it. Some were falling to the ground,” said Sam Carmano, who was traveling on line R. .
“There was a guy lying in a pool of blood. Motionless. Other people covered in other people’s blood,” said this witness interviewed by local radio 1010 WINS.
The survivors rush to the exits of the station. A man helps another, unable to walk. Travelers look haggard, others manipulate their smartphones to call relatives or film the scene of terror.
Underground traffic is stopped on line N. But users still on the platform are instructed, in a message broadcast by loudspeaker, to get back into the line R train, which leaves with its few injured. In a wagon, passengers improvise first aid, trying to stem the bleeding.
– Camera broken –
The platform at the 36th Street station remains littered with personal effects abandoned in the panic. Unfortunately, as authorities will reveal, a surveillance camera that could have been crucial is down.
But, in the very urbanized district, dozens of others recorded the pedestrians leaving the station, the first arrivals of help.
The surroundings of the station saw dozens of ambulances, fire trucks, police vehicles, some of which were bringing mine clearance experts.
Tuesday at the end of the day, the motive of the shooter remained unknown.