Hundreds of New York City police officers were engaged on Tuesday, April 12, “on a citywide manhunt” to find the author, the morning, of a shooting in the metro, which injured 23 people, including 10 by bullets, reports the Wall Street Journal.
A 62-year-old man who rented a pickup truck in Philadelphia has been identified and labeled a “person of interest” by the police. The vehicle key was found on board the train where the tragedy took place, as well as objects which, according to the police, belonged to the shooter, “including a 9mm Glock pistol, three rounds of ammunition, a hatchet, fireworks and a liquid that could be gasoline”list it New York Times. The van was found abandoned a few kilometers from the scene of the attack.
The attack is currently not considered an act of terrorism.
“Nightmare”
Shortly before 8:30 a.m. local time (2:30 p.m. French time), at rush hour, which constitutes “a routine part of life for millions of New Yorkers” suddenly transformed “in nightmare”on the N line, when a gunman set off two smoke devices and opened fire on passengers during the trip between two stations, in the borough of Brooklyn, says New York Magazinewhich evokes “the bloodiest attack in the subway [new-yorkais] of recent memory”.
The man fired 33 shots as smoke filled the car. When the train entered the next station, “passengers stormed out, coughing and [pour certains] bleeding on the dock, and the shooter fled”details the media, relaying the elements provided by the authorities during a press conference in the evening at the headquarters of the New York police.
Shootings on the rise
The tragedy occurs “just over a hundred days into the term of mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, who campaigned on lower crime” which increased in the megalopolis during the Covid-19 pandemic, notes the Wall Street Journal. “The Democrat has made strengthening public safety a centerpiece of his action as he tries to encourage white-collar workers to return to Manhattan.”
Shootings in the city are up 8.4% since the start of the year, with 322 incidents, compared to 297 during the same period in 2021, according to the latest data from the New York police.
“Crime had reached historic lows in New York for the past three decades before the numbers began to rise in 2020, a trend that has continued for the past two years and reflects what is happening in major cities in the countryExplain CNN.
All of America is facing a high level of violence, not just New York, Mayor Eric Adams told the USA Channel. “We are facing a problem that is affecting the whole country at the moment. We need a national response.”