One person was killed and five others were injured in a shooting at a New York City subway station during the Monday evening commute following a dispute between two groups of teenagers, police have said.
The shooting occurred at 4.38pm local time at a subway station in the Bronx, police said, adding a man aged 35 was killed.
A 14-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy were among the wounded, along with three adults, aged 28, 29 and 71. A Fire Department spokesperson described four of the five injuries as serious.
Some of the victims were believed to be involved in the dispute and others were waiting for the train, authorities said, describing four of the injuries as serious.
“We don’t believe this was a random shooting. We do not believe that this was an individual indiscriminately firing into a train or a train station,” NYPD’s chief of transit Michael Kemper said at a news conference.
“This incident today occurred as a result of two groups that started fighting while on a train.”
He said the gunfire erupted when the train pulled into the station, striking people on the platform.
“The doors opened up and at least one of the individuals in that group, or in the two groups, took out a gun and fired shots,” he said. “People started running off the train onto the platform and more shots were fired on the platform.”
A hunt was on for at least one shooter, who fled the scene.
“The train was coming and there were two kids yelling,” witness Efrain Feliciano, 61, told the Daily News.
“There were at least six shots.”
“I saw sparkles as the bullets hit the wall,” Mr Feliciano said. “A woman was holding a child screaming.”
Video from television news helicopters showed a subway train stopped at the station and orange evidence cones on the platform, which is three stops north of Yankee Stadium.
Trains were still running through the station on an express track, but were not stopping as police investigated.
Fear of violence on the subway system spiked after a string of incidents in recent years, but overall, crime in New York City has been plummeting since a surge at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The number of people shot citywide dropped 39% last year compared to 2022. Killings on the subway system also dropped last year, from 10 to five.