Edited by: TJVNews.com
As violent crime continues to spiral out of control in New York City, the New York Post recently reported that murders in the city’s subway system since 2020, have skyrocketed to the highest annual levels in 25 years, even amid plummeting ridership numbers, according to data supplied by the New York Police Department.
The earliest data that the Post gained access was back in 1997 and it appears that there had never been more than five subway murders in a single year until the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic emerged in the early part of 2020. As such, it raised that number the first time in decades.
The next year, murders shot up to eight, the Post reported. So far in 2022, there have been eight killings in the transit system.
Together with 2020’s toll, that’s 21 slayings — which is more murders than the transit system saw between 2008 and 2019 combined, the Post reported.
Most recently, the Associated Press reported that a 15-year-old boy was fatally shot on a New York subway train this past Friday after a dispute between two groups of people escalated into violence.
It was the eighth killing in New York’s subway system this year, at a time when a gradual increase in ridership after a steep decline during the Covid-19 pandemic has been hampered by riders’ safety concerns, the AP reported.
According to police, who didn’t identify the victim, the teenager was in one of the groups that got into an argument on an A train in Queens shortly before 4 p.m.
The AP also reported that as the train neared the line’s final stop in Far Rockaway, near JFK Airport, someone fired one shot, striking the boy in the chest. A passenger helped him off the train when it reached the station. Police and emergency personnel took him to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police were reviewing security camera footage from the station and the surrounding area. They didn’t say whether they had identified any suspects or a more specific motivation for the shooting, according to the AP report.
Despite the deployment of more than 1,000 more police officers in the system since the pandemic began, a survey released last month by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority found 70% of riders felt there were too few officers in the system, the AP reported. Barely more than 50% said they felt safe or very safe on trains or in stations.
“We obviously have work to do,” New York City Transit President Richard Davey said Friday, as was reported by the AP. “We’ve got to stop this.”
NYPD Chief of Transit Jason Wilcox said arrests have been made in all seven of the previous killings this year.
Last month, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the MTA would put cameras on all of its nearly 6,400 subway cars to rebuild riders’ faith in the system’s safety, the AP reported. The project is expected to take three years to complete.
New York City’s subway system already has more than 10,000 existing security cameras in its 472 stations.
Speaking to the New York Post, Professor Maria Haberfeld from CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal, and a former lieutenant in the Israel National Police said, “It used to be ‘I know if I don’t go to this neighborhood, I will be safe,’ but today you don’t have that.
“You can take the subway anywhere at any time of day, in broad daylight, and there is no guarantee of safety,” she told The Post.
The Post reported that prior to the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2019, when an average 142 million people rode the trains each month, three murders happened in the subway system. These days, an average of just 81 million people are taking the train monthly, a small uptick from 2020 and 2021, which saw an average of 53.3 million and 63.3 million riders per month, respectively, the report said.
The transit killings come after public officials have repeatedly promised to flood subway platforms and cars with police officers under Mayor Eric Adams’ subway safety plan, which has sought to reduce violence by cracking down on quality-of-life offenses and homelessness, the Post reported.
Over the past two weeks, more than a dozen people have been violently attacked on the New York City transit system, including three fatally, in a string of bloody, frightening incidents, as was reported in the Post.
In a heinous and brutal crime that shocked the city, the late September stabbing murder of Alison Russo-Elling, an on-duty FDNY lieutenant whose life ended in a random attack in Queens has become a touch point in the ongoing conversation about the rampant crime that has gripped the city. The Post reported that Russo was a 24-year veteran of the department and planned to retire in just six months to spend more time with her daughter and grandchildren.
Lt. Alison Russo-Elling, who was attacked less than a block away from her station house, was one of the first responders at Ground Zero after the 9/11 terror attacks and “dedicated her life to saving others,” her shocked colleagues told the Post.
The 61-year-old “was about six or seven months away from retirement,” Vincent Variale, president of Local 3621, told reporters outside the hospital where Russo-Elling succumbed to her injuries. “She was talking about it.”
The Post reported that Russo-Elling had gone to grab food when she was stabbed in what authorities said was a random and completely unprovoked attack.
“Our job is a very dangerous job. It’s as dangerous as fire and police. We’re assaulted just as much,” Variale said, the Post reported. “We lose a lot of members unfortunately, and we are not treated the same.”
Police took Russo-Elling’s alleged killer into custody at his nearby home, where he fled to after the attack, the Post reported.
Peter Zisopoulos, 34, faces a weapon possession charge in connection with the senseless attack on the 61-year-old paramedic, who was stabbed 19 times at 20th Avenue and 41st Street in Astoria around 2:20 p.m. on Thursday, September 29th, the NYPD said, according to the Post report.
Queens prosecutors wrote in his criminal complaint that “admissions of the defendant’’ help show he killed Russo-Elling, the report indicated.
On September 30th , a father of two was fatally stabbed on the L train. The Post reported that Tommy Bailey, 42, a hard-working father of two known as a “Canarsie legend” for his athletic prowess, was stabbed to death on his commute home from work, according to a special Post report listing the most recent crime victims in the Big Apple.
The Post reported that a homeless man, Alvin Charles, 42, fatally stabbed him in the neck near the Atlantic Avenue station in Brooklyn.
Loved ones of Bailey, claimed his death could’ve been prevented had Charles not been freed on bail for a similar subway stabbing that happened in July 2021.
The controversy that swirls around the new bail reform laws have become a major flashpoint amongst local elected officials and in the electoral race for governor of New York. Congressman Lee Zeldin, a Republican from Long Island has promised to challenge the bail reform laws that see violent criminals with long records of arrest for felonies and misdemeanors back out on the streets after they had been apprehended
“If they [had] done something about it back then, Tommy would have still been alive and we wouldn’t be talking right now,” said Jaylin, Bailey’s 18-year-old neighbor in Canarsie, as was reported by the Post.
“His death is on their hands. No common sense. That’s sad.”
On October 1, a 52-year old MTA bus driver was slashed on the job by an irate customer in Harlem, the Post reported.
The suspect got angry with the driver when he didn’t open the rear doors of the bus, prompting him to march up to the worker, spit on him and slash him twice on his left forearm as he threatened to “go get my gun”, the Post reported.
On October 2, the first ‘Green Goblin’ attack took place in the city. A group of women decked out in bizarre, neon green bodysuits brutally attacked and robbed two 19-year-olds at the Times Square subway station around 2 a.m. after one of the victims apparently bumped into them, the Post reported.
“She said she was attacked by aliens,” the mother of one of the victims told The Post the day after the assault.
“Yesterday was her birthday. This is how she spent her 19th birthday. I hope they get what they deserve and then some because it’s disgusting.”
The Post also reported that the suspects made off with a cell phone and purse and remain at large.
On October 3rd, a 25-year old man was randomly shoved onto subway tracks at the Union Square station in Manhattan. He was heading home from work and waiting for a No. 6 train when he was suddenly pushed onto the trackbed around 9:30 p.m., allegedly by an emotionally disturbed homeless man, the Post reported.
The Post also reported that hours after Clarence Anderson allegedly shoved the man, who was saved by good Samaritans, he attacked another innocent New Yorker – a construction worker toiling near Columbus Circle.
“He shouldn’t have been on the streets,” the subway-shove victim, who needed 18 stitches to close the gash on his head, told The Post.
“I won’t be taking the subway after 7 p.m. again. … Something needs to be changed or fixed.”
On October 4th, a 31-year-old man was slashed in the leg at the Times Square subway station after getting into a fight with another guy just after 11 p.m, the Post reported.
Dramatic video posted to Twitter shows officers treating the injured and bleeding man on the subway platform, with a trail of blood behind him, the report indicated, It’s not clear what sparked the fued.
On October 6th, a 59-year-old man was stabbed in the shoulder around 1 p.m. inside the 125th Street A, B, C and D station in Harlem, as was reported by the Post/
The victim had missed his stop and was walking up the stairs to get to the southbound platform when he encountered someone who was blocking his path and tapped him on the shoulder, police said.
The Post reported that the two men started arguing before the suspect took out a knife and stabbed him.
Also on October 6th, a 45-year-old man was slashed in the face while passing through the turnstile at the A train station at Pitkin and Grant avenues in East New York, Brooklyn, around 5 p.m., the Post reported.
The Post reported that the victim claimed to police that he did not know his attacker but said he was wearing blue and that his assailant may have believed he was a gang member. The suspect took off on a scooter, according to the report.
The Post reported that also on October 6th, a beloved father was fatally stabbed while commuting home.
Charles Moore, 38, was headed home from his job at Citi Field around 10:30 p.m. when he was knifed to death at the 176th Street and Jerome Avenue station, the report said.
Saquan Lemons, 27, allegedly randomly killed the dad on the crowded platform shortly after “tumbling out” of a No. 4 train, prosecutors said during his arraignment on murder charges, as was reported by the Post. Lemons’ attorney requested he undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
On October 8th, a 17-year old victim was hunted, beaten and stabbed on the Upper East Side, the Post reported. He was commuting home from his job at Shake Shack and was violently attacked at the East 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue station in Manhattan, leaving him with six stab wounds.
The attackers, who were clad in all black and wore face masks, had gone to the teen’s job asking where he was and then followed him into the subway system, the Post reported.
On October 9th, a father of four was fatally stabbed on the bus. Lamont Barkley, 55, was on a BX19 bus around 8:30 p.m. when he was killed by a woman and man he’d been arguing with, police said, according to the Post report.
The Post also reported that prior to the fatal stabbing, Barkley had gotten into an argument with the woman at a nearby bar, Glen Roy’s Public House, prompting her to call the man to come to the area, police sources and neighbors said.
At some point, the trio got on the bus, where the man and woman attacked Barkley, sources told the Post.
Ebony Jackson, 42, was taken into custody in connection with the incident and charged with murder and manslaughter, according to the Post report.
On October 10th, a 49-year-old woman was waiting for the No. 2 train at the Cathedral Parkway subway station in Harlem around 2:30 a.m. when she was suddenly whacked in the head with an unknown object, as was reported by the Post.
No words were exchanged before her attacker, a stranger, took off, cops told the Post.
