Big Apple commuters, transit workers and even the MTA’s top boss expressed fear over using public transportation on Monday after an unprovoked shooting on the rails left a Goldman Sachs employee dead over the weekend.
“Children are afraid to travel to and from school, and parents are just as afraid… We are in a crisis right now, and it doesn’t seem [that] anything is changing. Things are escalating and becoming worse daily, and there seems to be no end in sight,” Mona Davids, a Bronx mom who founded the NYC School Safety Coalition, told The Post.
“Since [Mayor Eric Adams became] mayor it’s gotten worse… We need him to finally get stuff done and protect our children, protect our communities. Otherwise he’s going to be a one-term mayor, because this is completely out of control.”
On Sunday morning, Daniel Enriquez, 48, was headed to brunch on a northbound Q train when a suspect, who’d been pacing in the train car, suddenly pulled out a gun and fired at the straphanger at close range as the subway crossed the Manhattan Bridge.
Once the train pulled into the Canal Street station, train operator Luis Irizarry tried to revive Enriquez but he could not be saved. He was pronounced dead shortly after at Bellevue Hospital.
Daniel Enriquez was shot and killed in an unprovoked attack on a northbound Q train.
The MTA’s top boss Janno Lieber expressed every parent’s fear during a morning committee meeting when he revealed his children ride the subway line where the shooting occured.
“The train involved in this shooting, the Q, is one I’ve ridden for 25 years. It’s a train that my kids use regularly and frequently. They’re all in college now, but they come home midnight, 1 a.m., coming back from Manhattan. It’s always felt safe,” Lieber said as he held up a wanted poster for the suspect who shot and killed Enriquez.
“For so many New Yorkers the transit system is the only way to get around and to live their normal lives. You can’t do that if you’re scared to get up and go to brunch, that most New York of activities, on a Sunday morning for fear of being attacked.”
MTA workers and commuters alike said conditions on the buses and trains have deteriorated since the COVID-19 pandemic and they no longer feel safe on public transportation.
“It’s been horrible for the last 12 months. I’m personally way more on edge than I used to be,” a train operator who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Post.
“I’ve had two people unsuccessfully try to kill themselves this year. Never had a single person like that in the last three years and had two in like a month. Countless homeless people and vagrants just like not where they are supposed to be on catwalks and stuff. Even if they aren’t in danger, it scares the s–t out of you and you gotta stop [the train] and it’s a whole thing,” the worker continued.
“I used to do a lot of overtime. Now I don’t do anything after my shift because I don’t want to be out there.”
Robert Whittaker, a bus driver who testified at Monday’s committee meeting, said he’s been “threatened” and “followed” while on the job.
“We don’t feel safe,” Whittaker said.
“It’s unfortunate that we, the employees, are affected by decisions that are made here at the board without really understanding the situation.”
Gloria Keum, 42, is a native New Yorker who grew up riding the subways and rides the train everyday for work but is more cautious these days and tries to stay off her phone so she can be more alert.
Cops are looking to speak with a 25-year-old Brooklyn man who is considered a person of interest in the slaying. NYPD“I actually don’t feel safe riding the subway… I’m just shocked with the level of random violence. I hate even saying that because I’ve always just considered myself a New Yorker, we’re smart. You try to avoid drama. But it just seems like crime is very random, which makes me sad,” Keum told The Post.
Keum, a criminal and civil trial attorney, has handled cases involving people accused of subway crimes and blamed the rash of violence on a lack of mental health services.
“It has everything to do with the fact that social services has been reduced to a level where people who are mentally ill are not receiving social services in a way they did pre-covid,” she said.
John Wu, 23, lives in Sunset Park and said he started “feeling unsafe” after accused terrorist Frank James shot ten people on a Manhattan-bound N train in the neighborhood in April.
“Then that feeling kind of like slowly went away but it’s always in the back of my mind that anything can happen” Wu, a graduate student at Fordham University, said.
“I take it more seriously because you don’t know what could happen any day.
Daniel Enriquez was headed to brunch when an unknown suspect suddenly pulled out a gun and fired. Michael Dalton“One thing I noticed after the pandemic is New York has not been as safe as before.”
Others, like Fran Mullis, 77, aren’t phased.
“When I lived in Georgia people got shot there various times. So people get shot everywhere,” Mullis, who moved to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn from Georgia two years ago for her retirement, said.
“Things can happen anywhere…. I don’t have a car. I ride the subway and I’m just not going to spend my life being scared of things.”
Cops have released surveillance footage of the apparent suspect in the killing of Enriquez and have asked the public to report any information they may have.
“Do what the police department says. There’s somebody who knows this person from his clothing, from his pattern,” Lieber said.
“If you know anything about this person who appears to have committed this terrible crime, help the police and help New York get back to normal.”
Lieber called the Q line “iconic” for its spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline and called the slaying “an incredible setback” in the Big Apple’s effort to get back to normal.
“Last week we celebrated record ridership on the MTA system,” Lieber said.
“And in fact, before yesterday we were starting to see stats indicating that even subway crime was headed in the right direction. This is all before yesterday’s senseless shooting.”
Additional reporting by Cayla Bamberger
