New York City subway crime is up nearly 58% so far this year compared to the same time in 2021, while the manhunt intensifies for the brazen suspect in Sunday’s unprovoked fatal shooting inside a moving train car.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) manhunt for the gunman behind the cold-blood murder of Daniel Enriquez, a 48-year-old Brooklyn man who was gunned down while sitting inside a Manhattan-bound Q-train on Sunday morning.
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Enriquez was sitting inside the moving train shortly before 11:42 a.m. when, according to witnesses, the suspect "was walking back and forth in the same train car," NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey told reporters on Sunday.
"Without provocation," Corey said, he "pulled out a gun and fired at the victim at close range as the trains [were] crossing the Manhattan Bridge."
Enriquez, who worked as a research assistant for Goldman Sachs, was rushed to an area hospital, but could not be saved. Corey said the victim and his attacker were strangers to each other.
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On Monday, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell posted a pair of photos of the suspected gunman, who appeared to have been wearing a dark-colored jacket with the hood over his head, a red shirt underneath and a light blue face mask.
"We need all eyes on this," the top cop wrote.
The latest NYPD crime statistics show transit crimes are up 57.5% year-to-date as of Sunday, with 975 incidents reported so far in 2022 compared to the 576 in 2021.
Speaking during an MTA board meeting on Monday, NYPD Transit Chief Jason Wilcox announced that the city this month had rolled out the Train Patrol Force, or TPF, to "perform dedicated, targeted and visible travel patrols on the late evening and overnight hours."
Wilcox told transportation executives 54% of the city’s total subway crime is reported on the trains, and 40% of that total is reported during "the specific TPF overnight hours."
The TPF is "not a new concept" and has been used in "years past" in patrolling the subways.
"It was an idea that we felt we needed to return to," he said.
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Meanwhile, the transit chief added that overall subway arrests are up 67% so far this year.