A 48-year-old man killed when bullets started flying at a Bronx subway station — a brazen display of violence that left five others, including two teens, wounded — was an innocent bystander, police said Tuesday.
The victim, who police believe is homeless, wasn’t involved in the argument that exploded in a shooting on an uptown No. 4 train entering the elevated Mount Eden Ave. station at Jerome Ave. in Mount Eden about 4:30 p.m. Monday. Police initially believed he was 34 or 35 but corrected his age to 48 Tuesday.
The wounded included victim in the subway car and others on the platform waiting to get on the train, police said.
Two groups of teens were fighting on the train, witnesses told police. When the doors opened at least one of the teens pulled a gun and started shooting, NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said at a Monday night press conference.
“The train was coming and there were two kids yelling,” witness Efrain Feliciano, 61, told the Daily News Monday night. “There were at least six shots.”
“I saw sparkles as the bullets hit the wall,” he added. “A woman was holding a child screaming.”
The homeless man was hit in the chest by a stray shot, cops said. He died at St. Barnabas Hospital. His name was not immediately released.
Survivor Oumar “Alpha” Diallo, 28, was struck in the right arm while a 29-year-old woman was shot in the face and neck, a 15-year-old boy was shot in the thigh and right ear and a 14-year-old girl was shot in the foot, sources said. A 71-year-old man suffered a graze wound to his left thumb, police said.
The two teens were found wounded on the street level as dozens of people scrambled for safety, cops said.
The gunman ran off. No arrests have been made, although cops did recover surveillance footage of the incident, police sources said. A group of four “kids” in hoodies were seen running from the scene, witnesses said.
The five wounded victims are expected to survive.
It was not immediately clear if the shooting was sparked by a gang rivalry or simply “just a kid having an argument with another teen,” a high ranking police source said.
Last week, surveillance footage at a Times Square train station helped police identify a 15-year-old shoplifter who shot a tourist and then opened fire on police. The teen was ultimately tracked down to Yonkers.
Cops stressed that Monday’s shooting was not random and such violence is “not the norm” in the subway system.
“To have a shooting like this in the subway system is extremely rare and unacceptable,” said Kemper. “This is not indicative to what goes on in the subway system.”
There were no immediate arrests as police continued to hunt for the people responsible the carnage – whom officials called the “NYPD’s most wanted.”
The shooting comes as assaults have jumped in the city’s transit system this year. As of Sunday, there were 64 assaults reported in the city’s subway system so far this year compared to 58 recorded by this time last year — an increase of 10%. The number of robberies in the subway is also up, from 57 by this time last year to 60 so far this year, cops said.
Monday’s fatal shooting was the second homicide to occur in the city subway system this year, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
