By John Miller and Celina Tebor | CNN
One person is dead and five others were injured in a shooting after at least one person pulled out a gun and began firing as a subway train pulled into a station in the Bronx borough of New York, police said Monday evening.
Two groups of teenagers were riding in a northbound No. 4 train and when the doors opened at the Mt. Eden subway station, someone started shooting, according to New York Police Department Chief of Transit Michael Kemper. The first 911 calls about the shooting came in at around 4:35 p.m., he said.
People ran off the train and more shots were fired on the platform. The wounded included people from the groups of teenagers and bystanders, he added.
“We don’t believe this was a random shooting. We don’t believe this was just an individual shooting indiscriminately onto a train. We believe this shooting all stemmed from a dispute between two groups that started on a train,” Kemper told reporters at a news conference on the street underneath the station, which serves an elevated portion of the train system.
Four males were shot, including a 34-year-old who died at a hospital, police said. The wounded victims were a 15-year-old, 28-year-old and 71-year-old, Kemper said. Authorities would not describe the nature of their wounds.
A 14-year-old girl and a 29-year-old woman also were hit by gunfire but have non-life-threatening wounds, he said.
“This is not the norm,” said Kemper, who declared the subway to be safe. “Shootings were down last year. To have a shooting like this in the subway system is extremely rare and unacceptable… The bigger question is why do people feel emboldened to pull guns out and shoot? There must be (legal) consequences.”
The shooter fled the scene wearing a red jacket and ski mask, a law enforcement source told CNN.
Authorities said the number of suspects is part of the investigation, and they will distribute photos from surveillance cameras when they are available. Detectives are interviewing witnesses to the shooting, they said.
Janno Lieber, chair and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said this kind of violence is unacceptable.
“New York’s heart breaks,” Lieber said. “New York’s heart breaks when people are headed home, and kids who are coming home for school to do their homework, are subjected to random acts of violence, like what occurred here late this afternoon.”
Kaz Daughtry, police deputy commissioner of operations, had a stern message for the shooter.
“You are now NYPD’s most wanted and you have the greatest detectives in the world looking for you,” Daughtry said. “We suggest you turn yourself in because you’re not going to make it.”
