An off-duty MTA worker was grazed in the arm by a stray bullet while he was on his commute home Tuesday evening, police said.
The man was on a southbound No. 3 train at about 6 p.m. when a fight broke out between two groups. When the train pulled into the Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road station in Brownsville, “one of the males from one of the groups exited the train and while on the train platform, displayed a gun and fired into the train, striking our victim,” NYPD Chief Michael Kemper said at a news conference.
The victim is not believed to have been an intended target, Kemper added. He was taken to a hospital in stable condition, cops said.
After visiting the worker at the hospital with MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota, NYC Transit president Andy Byford said the victim was “in very good spirits.”
“This is a horrible incident and we’re all pulling for a speedy recovery,” Lhota said. “We’re thankful that the police have responded in a substantial way and look forward to seeing any and all perpetrators held accountable.”
Police believe the shooter is a teenager, a spokesman said. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
Despite this incident and other recent incidents on the subway, including a man threatening another passenger with a knife and a panhandler striking a man in the head with a pipe, NYPD Chief of Transit Edward Delatorre assured passengers they shouldn’t be concerned about riding the subway.
“We have approximately six million riders a day. We average slightly over six crimes per day,” he said. “So we’re talking about odds close to one in a million of becoming a victim of a crime. I know that’s not very helpful for the person who was a victim today, but in reality, the system is very safe, it’s safer than it’s ever been.”
With Vincent Barone
