NEW YORK (Washington Insider Magazine)– After a clash between two groups of individuals intensified into violence, a 15-year-old kid was fatally shot aboard a New York subway train on Friday.
This year It was the eighth killing in the subway system of New York, at a time when safety concerns of the users have hindered a steady rise in ridership following a sharp decrease during the COVID-19 pandemic, ABC NEWS reported.
The teenager was reportedly a part of one of the groups who got into an argument on an A train in Queens just some time before 4 o’clock. The authorities declined to name the victim.
A shot was fired in the train which struck the boy in the chest, as the train approached the final stop of the line in Far Rockaway, close to JFK Airport. When the train arrived at the station, a passenger assisted him in getting down. He was taken to a local hospital by emergency workers and the police, where he was later declared dead.
The station’s and the neighborhood’s surveillance camera video was being examined by police. They did not provide any information on suspects or a more detailed explanation for the shooting.
Despite the addition of nearly 1,000 law enforcement personnel to the system since the pandemic started, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority conducted a study last month that indicated 70% of passengers believed there were not enough cops on duty. Just over 50% of respondents indicated they felt very safe or safe in stations or on trains.
Richard Davey, president of New York City Transit, said on Friday, “We obviously have work to do. We’ve got to stop this.”
Arrests have been made in each of the first seven homicides this year, according to NYPD Chief of Transit Jason Wilcox.
To restore commuters’ confidence in the security of the system, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul announced last month that the MTA will install cameras on every one of its almost 6,400 subway carriages. The project should be finished in three years.
Over 10,000 surveillance cameras are already installed across the 472 stations of New York City’s subway system.
