At least 10 shot in attack on rush-hour subway train
NEW YORK — A gunman in a gas mask and construction vest set off a smoke grenade and fired a barrage of at least 33 bullets in a rush-hour subway train, shooting at least 10 people Tuesday, authorities said. Police were scouring the city for the shooter and trying to track down the renter of a van possibly connected to the violence.
A scene of horror unfolded as frightened commuters ran from the train as others limped out of it. At least one rider collapsed on the platform.
“My subway door opened into calamity. It was smoke and blood and people screaming,” eyewitness Sam Carcamo told radio station 1010 WINS. Smoke poured out of the train car as the door opened, he added.
Five people were in critical condition but expected to survive. At least 29 in all were treated at hospitals for gunshot wounds, smoke inhalation and other conditions, according to hospitals.
The gunfire erupted on a train that pulled into a station in the Sunset Park neighborhood, about a 15-minute ride from Manhattan
and predominantly home to Hispanic and Asian communities.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the attack was not being investigated as terrorism, but that she was “not ruling out anything.” The shooter’s motive was unknown.
Authorities found a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun at the scene, along with extended magazines, a hatchet, both detonated and undetonated smoke grenades, a black garbage can, a rolling cart, gasoline and key to a U-Haul van, Chief of Detectives James Essig said.
He said the key led investigators to the van renter, who they said has addresses in Philadelphia and Wisconsin. Authorities were looking for him, but Essig stressed that it wasn’t yet clear whether the man was linked to the shooting. Police released photos of a person of interest in the attack, who they identified as Frank James, 62.
The officials said authorities zeroed in on James after the credit card used to rent the van was found at the shooting scene.