The lasting toll of violence on New York City’s subway

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Blood on the tracks

More people have been murdered in New York City’s subways since the start of 2020 than in the preceding 15 years — a grim statistic driven by an alarming start to the year in the mass transit system.

The NYPD has recorded 32 murders in subway trains and stations since the start of 2020, which includes three fatal shootings over the last six weeks. There were 31 murders recorded in the system from 2005 to 2019, according to NYPD data.

MTA Chair Janno Lieber emphasized that crime on the subways is rare at an MTA board meeting on Wednesday.

“On average, last year, we had six felony crimes a day in a ridership of 4 million,” Lieber said. “I'm not going to argue about the statistics. I'm just saying that we need to push back on both the reality and the perception of crime.”

But gun violence on mass transit exacts a lasting toll that can’t be fully captured in statistics. Just ask Fitim Gjeloshi, who helped save dozens of passengers on a northbound Brooklyn N train on April 12, 2022 when Frank James set off a smoke bomb and fired 32 shots from his Glock 17 during morning rush hour.

Ten people were wounded as terrified riders rushed toward the opposite end of the car. Gjeloshi busted open a locked train car door, allowing commuters to flee into an adjoining car.

Miraculously, no one died.

And although Gjeloshi, 21, is a subway hero, he's now terrified to ride the trains.

In an interview with Gothamist, Gjeloshi recalled that James shot at him four times. Three of the bullets missed, but one grazed his pants. Gjeloshi said he still suffers from PTSD and rarely leaves his house.

“I get scared to ride the train. I never ride the train,” said Gjeloshi. “When you see a person who shot so many people, including yourself, everything changes.”

James was sentenced to life in prison last year.

2024's violent start comes despite a surge of NYPD officers into the subway system.

Police said three people got into an argument with William Alvarez, 45, on a D train near 182nd-183rd Streets station in the Bronx last Friday — and then fatally shot him. Internal MTA records obtained by Gothamist suggest the group attempted to rob the man before his death. Police have charged the three with murder.

Three teens allegedly shot into a crowd after an argument with rivals at the Mount Eden Avenue station on Feb. 12. Obed Beltran-Sanchez, 35, an innocent bystander, was fatally struck in the chest and five others were injured.

And Richard Henderson, 45, was shot by a man who remains at large while riding a 3 train in Brooklyn on Jan. 14. Police said Henderson tried to break up a fight between the shooter and another rider. Henderson’s friend Anthony Williams, who was also on the train during the shooting, told Gothamist the suspect “just came out of nowhere.” The shooting occurred at the Rockaway Avenue station, according to an internal MTA incident report. The train continued for six stops until it reached the Franklin Avenue-Medgar Evers College station, where the mortally wounded Henderson was taken to Kings County Hospital.

“This is not a crazy, out of control place,” Lieber said of the subway system. “However, it is a place where people do feel vulnerable. And it’s a public space that needs to feel safe as well as being safe.”

Fitim Gjeloshi's father Hasan wondered whether his son would ever be able to ride mass transit again. He recalled riding the subway with his son after the 2022 shooting “to see how he acted.”

“His face was coming yellow. He changed the color. He started shaking his hands,” Hasan Gjeloshi said. “When I look at him, I say, ‘This child, my son, is finished with the train.’”

This week in New York City transit news

Listen here:

• Upper Manhattan drivers are renewing a push for resident parking permits amid fears that an influx of commuters will park in their neighborhood to avoid congestion pricing tolls. Read more.
• The MTA has installed devices for tracking and tolling cars at dozens of locations around Manhattan ahead of the planned launch of congestion pricing. Read more.
• Police said a subway conductor was slashed in the neck early Thursday morning at a Brooklyn station while looking out the train’s window for a routine safety check. He was taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition. Read more.
• A package of bills introduced by City Councilmember Christopher Marte would create more bike parking and storage in local parks and city-owned buildings to protect against theft. Read more.
• New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is pitching a corporate tax surcharge for companies making $10 million or more in annual profits in order to fund NJ Transit as it faces a nearly $1 billion fiscal cliff. Read more.
• New Yorkers of color are far less likely to live near car-free pedestrian plazas than white residents, according to a report from the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives. Read more.
• The MTA has installed plastic pylons on the platform of the 125th Street 4/5/6 station in Harlem to test if the barriers can effectively reduce attacks on train conductors. Read more.
• If you can’t resist walking from car to car inside one of the C line’s new open gangway subway trains, you’re a “gangway walker.” Welcome to the club. (City & State)

Curious Commuter

Question:

Why are the MTA’s new elevators and escalators constantly out of service? The elevators at the 190th Street station on the A line were installed during the pandemic, yet one of three is constantly out of service.

— Amy, Manhattan

Answer:

According to the MTA, new subway elevators are like baseball gloves – they need to be broken in. Seriously.

“The MTA strives to ensure all elevators are working properly and holds its contractors to high standards. This is especially true in cases where newly built elevators are experiencing routine break-in periods as their thousands of components are tested by 24/7 service for the first time,” MTA spokesperson Michael Cortez said.

The MTA closed and upgraded subway elevators at five Upper Manhattan subway stations between 2019 and 2021, including the one at our Curious Commuter’s 190th Street station. It’s particularly important for that station's elevators to function because it’s more than 100 feet beneath the street. If the elevators are down, commuters must climb 10 flights of stairs.

It’s not the first time the MTA had issues with new elevators at the station. Back in 1986, Newsday’s Jim Dwyer reported one of the station’s elevators routinely broke down less than a year after they were replaced for $1.1 million.

“The work was supposed to be done by February 1984. It wasn’t finished until October 1985,” Dwyer wrote. “In the year between then and the end of October 1986, the brand new elevator has been out of order on 67 occasions, for a total of 538 hours.”

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