1 dead, 1 injured in Brooklyn subway surfing incident

One teenager has died and another has been injured in a subway surfing incident in Brooklyn, police said.

The incident happened shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Thursday in the vicinity of the Bushwick Avenue-Aberdeen Street L train stop, according to the NYPD.

One of the youths was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other was taken to Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center in serious but stable condition, officials said. Outside the station, a group of distraught teens could be overheard asking police officers where their injured friend was taken.

“Subway surfing kills. It kills,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the scene on Thursday afternoon.

“He was not in school today,” Adams said of the deceased teen, adding that the youth graduated junior high school on Wednesday. “He was on top of the train.”

From Jan. 1 through May 25, 2023, there were 52 subway surfing incidents, according to the NYPD. Michael Kemper, the police department's chief of transit, said the overwhelming majority of subway surfers are young teens.

Kemper said the NYPD's transit bureau compiled a list of dozens of known subway surfers and had reached out to their families in an attempt to dissuade them from subway surfing. He added that the teens involved in Thursday's incident were not on the list.

"If you are a teenager and you are engaged in this activity, I am looking at you and imploring you to find something else to do," said Richard Davey, president of the New York City Transit Authority.

"If you are a parent and you think your child is engaged in subway, surfing, riding between cars, please tell them it is not a game," Davey said.

The mayor also urged social media to become “more socially responsible,” and called for platforms like TikTok to ban subway surfing videos. When asked about how this could take shape, Adams pointed to previous talks between city officials and TikTok about trending videos involving car thefts.

In a statement, TikTok expressed sympathy for the families of the boys and pointed out that subway surfing pre-dates the existence of the platform. The company said 40,000 "safety professionals" worked to monitor and remove harmful content.

L trains were running with delays in both directions late Thursday afternoon, according to the MTA.

This story was updated with additional comment and information.