An unidentified man has shot and killed a passenger on a subway train in New York on Sunday morning in what police officials said appeared to be an unprovoked attack.
The incident happened on a Q train travelling over Manhattan Bridge at about 11.40am, a time when the subway is often filled with families, tourists and people heading to brunch.
Witnesses told police the assailant was pacing the last car of the train, “and without provocation, pulled out a gun and fired it at the victim at close range”, said the New York police department chief, Kenneth Corey.
The 48-year-old victim died in hospital and was later identified by police as Daniel Enriquez of Brooklyn.
The gunman fled at Canal Street station in Manhattan. Police were reviewing security video to try to identify him.
Corey told reporters that although the circumstances were being investigated, witnesses could not recall any interactions between the gunman and the victim in the run-up to the shooting. A single 9mm shell casing was recovered at the scene.
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The shooting came at a time when New Yorkers’ faith in the safety of the subway system had been rattled. Last month, a man opened fire on a Brooklyn train, scattering random shots that wounded 10 people.
The person charged in that attack, Frank James, had allegedly posted dozens of videos online talking about race, violence and his struggles with mental illness.
In January, a man with schizophrenia fatally pushed a woman in front of a moving train. He was found mentally unfit to stand trial.
Since taking office in January, the Democrat mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, has made a crackdown on violent crime the primary focus of his administration.
The former New York City police captain rode the subway to City Hall on his first day as mayor. He said he did not feel safe on the train after encountering a yelling passenger and several homeless people, adding that the city needed to tackle “actual crime” as well as “the perception of crime”.
Most of the violence in the city in recent months has occurred in its neighbourhoods. But attacks on the subway, a network millions rely on, loom large in public perceptions of safety.