How the Brooklyn Subway Shooting Unfolded
A man released a canister of smoke and opened fire on a subway train in Brooklyn during rush hour on Tuesday morning. At least 23 people were injured, including 10 by gunfire. The New York City Police Department was still searching for the gunman on Wednesday but said it had identified a suspect.
BRONX
3The R train took passengers, including some who were injured, up one stop to 25th Street, where they departed.
MANHATTAN
QUEENS
Shooting
BROOKLYN
STATEN
ISLAND
South Brooklyn Marine Terminal
25th Street
station
GOWANUS EXPWY
27TH ST.
FIFTH AVE.
2When the train pulled into 36th Street, riders poured out and across to the Manhattan-bound R train on the other side of the platform.
36th Street
station
36TH ST.
Bush Terminal Piers Park
FIRST AVE.
Green-Wood
Cemetery
SECOND AVE.
M.T.A 38th St. Train Yard
41ST ST.
D train line
48TH ST.
45th Street
station
Sunset
Park
1After the Manhattan-bound N train left the 59th Street station, the gunman released a canister of smoke and opened fire.
The N train skips these stations
EIGHTH AVE.
53rd Street
station
SUNSET
PARK
59th Street
station
BROOKLYN
800 ft.
3The R train took passengers, including some who were injured, up one stop to 25th Street, where they departed.
BRONX
MANHATTAN
QUEENS
South Brooklyn Marine Terminal
Shooting
STATEN
ISLAND
BROOKLYN
25th Street
station
GOWANUS EXPWY
27TH ST.
2When the train pulled into 36th Street, riders poured out and across to the Manhattan-bound R train on the other side of the platform.
FIFTH AVE.
36th Street
station
36TH ST.
Bush Terminal Piers Park
Green-Wood
Cemetery
FIRST AVE.
41ST ST.
SECOND AVE.
D train line
Sunset
Park
The N train skips these stations
45th Street
station
1After the Manhattan-bound N train left the 59th Street station, the gunman released a canister of smoke and opened fire.
48TH ST.
EIGHTH AVE.
SUNSET
PARK
53rd Street
station
59th Street
station
BROOKLYN
800 ft.
BRONX
MANHATTAN
QUEENS
Shooting
3The R train took passengers, including some who were injured, up one stop to 25th Street, where they departed.
STATEN
ISLAND
BROOKLYN
Bay Ridge Channel
GOWANUS EXPWY
2When the train pulled into 36th Street, riders poured out and across to the Manhattan-bound R train on the other side of the platform.
25th St
station
FIFTH AVE.
36th St
station
Green-Wood
Cemetery
FIRST AVE.
D train line
Sunset
Park
The N train skips these stations
45th St
station
EIGHTH AVE.
SECOND AVE.
SUNSET
PARK
53rd St
station
59th St
station
BROOKLYN
1After the Manhattan-bound N train left the 59th Street station, the gunman released a canister of smoke and opened fire.
800 ft.
The gunman, who was wearing a construction vest and had put on a gas mask, opened fire between the 59th Street and 36th Street stations on the express N train in the Sunset Park neighborhood.
Passengers rushed out of the smoke-filled train at 36th Street. Some left the station there, and some ran onto an R train on the other side of the platform. The two exit stairways on the northbound platform are both at the extreme south end — relatively far from the part of the train where the shooting took place, near the front.
36th Street subway station
Witnesses reported
smoke and gunshots
coming from this car.
Injured people and
others crossed the
platform to board
the R train.
Train platform
Exit stairs
Witnesses reported
smoke and gunshots
coming from this car.
Injured people and others
crossed the platform to
board the R train.
Train platform
Exit stairs
Witnesses reported
smoke and gunshots
coming from this car.
Injured people and
others crossed the
platform to board
the R train.
Train platform
Exit stairs
Chris Fiocco, who was on an R train traveling toward Manhattan to switch trains at 36th Street, noticed smoke when his train arrived at the station and its doors opened.
“I was supposed to get off to go across the platform to get on my next train, but I couldn’t get through because hordes of people were crying, hysterical and just panicked,” he said.
At least one security camera at a nearby station that could have captured images of the gunman was not in operation, hindering the search, The Times learned from a senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
Inside the N train
Smears of blood
were visible on the
floor in this area.
One witness
reported seeing
shell casings in
this area.
Witnesses described smoke
coming out of all car doors
after the train arrived at 36th
Street.
Smears of blood
were visible on the
floor in this area.
One witness reported
seeing shell casings
in this area.
Witnesses described
smoke coming out of all
car doors after the train
arrived at 36th Street.
The R train took passengers, including some who had been injured, to the next stop at 25th Street, where they rushed out of the station. Police officers barricaded the entrances to the stations at 36th and 25th Streets, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority suspended service for N, R and D trains in the area.
Before the pandemic, about 13,000 subway riders passed through the 36th Street station on an average weekday, according to data from the M.T.A. In 2020, it was the 13th busiest station in Brooklyn, though its weekday ridership dropped to about 6,000 that year because of the pandemic.
Police recovered an empty U-Haul van five miles from where the shooting took place, and they said they believed it had been driven by the suspect, Frank R. James. The N.Y.P.D. said Mr. James had rented the van in Philadelphia and left the keys to it on the train where the shooting occurred, along with a Glock 9-millimeter handgun, ammunition, a hatchet, fireworks and a liquid they believed to be gasoline.
Mr. James has addresses in Philadelphia and Wisconsin, the police said, and appears to have posted many videos on YouTube, in which he expressed extreme views, criticized Mayor Eric Adams’s subway safety policies and said it would be easy to commit crimes on the subway. In a video posted Monday, the day before the shooting, he said that he had wanted to kill people and “to watch people die.”