Bronx teen charged with murder in fatal subway shooting: NYPD

Police arrested a Bronx teenager on Thursday morning and charged him with murder in a subway shooting in the borough that killed a man and injured five other people on Monday, according to NYPD officials.

Officers from the 44th precinct and members of a regional fugitive task force arrested the 16-year-old around 11 a.m., after they were tipped off that he would be leaving his apartment in the Mount Eden neighborhood, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.

A 14-year-old boy is also in custody in connection with a previous shooting outside a Bronx building on Jan. 15 that police believe spurred the subway shooting, Kenny said. He added that the younger teen was the target of the latter shooting, in which he was struck and injured.

Attorney information for the teens was not immediately available. Police said they did not know if the 16-year-old would be charged as an adult, and that the 14-year-old is being charged with attempted murder as a juvenile in the earlier shooting, which injured a 17-year-old boy in Morris Heights.

The subway incident erupted aboard a 4 train as it reached the Mount Eden Avenue station shortly before 5 p.m. on Monday. Police said two groups of teenagers were riding the northbound train when a dispute escalated and two people started firing guns on the platform.

Obed Beltran-Sanchez, 35, was shot and killed during the fracas, according to the NYPD. He was an immigrant from Mexico who aimed to return to his family there next year after working in the city, the New York Daily News reported.

Five other victims were taken to local hospitals for gunshot wounds, police said. They ranged in age from 14- to 71-years-old.

In recounting the chaos at the subway station, Kenny said Beltran-Sanchez was struck while stepping out to look down the platform and see what was happening.

“It's heartbreaking to see the video of him laying on the platform dying as people are just walking past him,” Kenny said. “They were walking past him as he was laying on the ground. Nobody rendered aid.”

On Tuesday, authorities said they were looking for at least three people of interest in the shooting, combing through surveillance footage and using a police helicopter to search the streets below. They said they did not believe the shooting was random.

Kenny said another person involved in the incident has not been arrested yet and that police are still investigating which person’s bullet struck Beltran-Sanchez. He said 19 shots were fired during the confrontation but police have not recovered any of the guns.

A few commuters interviewed at the station later told Gothamist they were upset by the shooting but would continue taking the subway. “You just try and put it to the back of your mind so you can go to work, you know?” 41-year-old Courtney Crawford said.

Last year, there were five homicides in the city’s subway system, down from nine in 2022, according to NYPD data. Subway assaults spiked to a 27-year high in 2023, though overall subway crime was down compared to the year before, the department said.

This story has been updated with additional information.