Man shot with his own gun after altercation on crowded New York subway train, police say

A 36-year-old man was in a critical condition in a New York hospital last night after he was shot with his own gun in a violent and chaotic altercation on a crowded subway train in Brooklyn, police said.

The incident took place on a northbound A train at 4.45 p.m. Thursday and is the latest in a string of violent crimes on the city’s subway system, which prompted New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to deploy a force of 1,000, including 750 National Guard, to increase security on the transit network.

Videos show terrified passengers taking cover, as someone shouts “there are babies on the train.”

The 36-year-old unidentified man is seen in several videos posted to social media approaching a 32-year-old man on the train, before entering into a verbal confrontation.

The scene developed into a fight and police say the 36-year-old produced a knife or razor blade and threatened the other man.

As the tense scene unfolded, one video posted online shows a woman in the carriage wearing a white face mask intervene as the 36-year-old pinned the other man down on a seat. With blood then clearly appearing on his shirt, the man turns to her and repeatedly says, “You stabbed me?” 

The video shows him later taking a firearm from his jacket. The man with the gun walked toward the other man while yelling “in menacing way,” NYPD head of transit, Michael Kemper, said in a news conference Thursday night.

The 32-year-old man can be seen standing in front of the woman as the armed man verbally threatened her in video posted online, as passengers scrambled to the opposite side of the carriage.

But at some point the aggressor lost control of the gun and was shot by the other man multiple times just as the train was pulling into Schermerhorn Station, Kemper said.

Eyewitnesses recorded video showing a man on a stretcher being lifted into an ambulance outside the station.

Police officers were already in the station, Kemper added, and were on the scene in seconds. The 32-year-old-man was being questioned by detectives last night, he said.

Lincoln Restler, a councilor who represents the area, said on X: “This is a horrible tragedy & deeply unnerving to the millions of New Yorkers who take the subway every day.”