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Bloomberg defends cops who caught alleged D train stabber
Mayor Michael Bloomberg Monday forcefully defended the cops who kept the doors of a D train shut while they arrested a man accused of killing a fellow passenger while about 30 people looked on in horror.
“They opened one door so the cops could grab anybody in there,” Bloomberg said in response to questions from reporters. “Opening all doors and letting everybody run in every direction and having a murderer back out on the streets doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”
Straphangers were trapped with the murderer for several minutes after one person pulled the emergency cord as the train was between stations early Saturday, police said.
After an engineer radioed ahead to the Seventh Avenue and 53rd Street station, police met the train, ordered that one door be opened and then boarded the car and nabbed the suspect, Gerardo Sanchez, of the Bronx, police said.
The victim, Dwight Johnson, who was stabbed in the neck, was dead when police arrived. There were no other injuries reported.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who joined Bloomberg at an unrelated City Hall news conference, said it was pulling the emergency cord that trapped the passengers and that after the conductor restarted the train and pulled into the next station, cops followed proper procedure.
Sanchez, who police say pried open the doors while the subway was stopped and ditched the knife on the tracks, pleaded not guilty to murder yesterday.
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