(NEW YORK) — A woman stabbed a 36-year-old man at the start of a New York City subway dispute that culminated with the man getting shot and critically hurt, cellphone video from a fellow rider revealed, according to authorities.
The 36-year-old shooting victim is in critical but stable condition following the incident that unfolded on a northbound A train in Brooklyn around 4:45 p.m. Thursday, NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper said at a Friday news conference. He was shot four times — once in the neck, once in the chest and twice in the right side of the face — and has two stab wounds to the back, according to law enforcement sources.
The “extended video” showed a woman on the train, “apparently with the 32-year-old” who later fired the gun, Kemper said. “It looks like on that video, it captures her involved in the incident also. It looks like she had a sharp object and cut the 36-year-old male with that sharp object.”
The woman was with the 32-year-old suspect when he got into a verbal and then physical dispute with the shooting victim, possibly over a subway seat, police said.
The woman appeared to pull a sharp object out of her purse and stabbed the victim in the lower back, police said.
After he was stabbed, the 36-year-old man asked, “Did you stab me?” before pulling a gun from his jacket and asking again, “You stabbed me, right?” according to police.
The physical altercation continued, with the 32-year-old man then grabbing at the gun, police said. Shots were fired as the train was pulling into the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station, Kemper said.
Terrified commuters who were on the train and the station platform ducked for cover during the incident, according to video from the scene.
No one else was injured, police said.
“There were multiple police officers in this station just feet away from when the train pulled in, who heard the shots and moved in right way,” Kemper said.
Ten to 15 minutes before the shooting, the 36-year-old entered the Nostrand Avenue subway without paying his fare and got onto the A train, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said Friday.
He later got “into a dispute with another male” and “eventually pulls a firearm out” and is disarmed and shot with his own gun, Maddrey said.
Maddrey stressed that enforcing fare evasion could result in stopping an armed man.
The 32-year-old shooting suspect remains at the 84th Precinct, where police are conferring with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office about possible charges, police said Friday.
The unidentified woman accused in the stabbing, who is a friend of the shooting suspect, is being sought for questioning for a potential assault charge, according to law enforcement sources.
“This is a very active case,” Kemper said. “If anyone has any information, whether you were on the train, in the station or heard something, please call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.”
The 36-year-old man who was shot was in possession of both a knife and a .380-caliber Ruger before the shooting, according to law enforcement sources, who said a decision on charging him will be made as he recovers from his injuries.
According to law enforcement sources, the 36-year-old was acting as the aggressor. The 36-year-old has 10 prior arrests, according to law enforcement sources.
The shooting comes one week after Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that New York National Guard troops and New York State Police troopers would be assisting city officers in protecting the subways.
A NYPD police transit bureau operates inside the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber decried the violence and reiterated his call for more gun control.
“The real victims are the people I saw in those videos,” he told reporters. “They are just trying to go about with their lives. Just get rid of the guns.”
ABC News’ Joyce Philippe and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.