Suspect in subway shooting arrested
Name and photo were posted on social media
NEW YORK — A man wanted in an apparently unprovoked fatal shooting aboard a New York City subway train was under arrest Tuesday, hours after authorities posted his name and photo on social media and implored the public to help find him.
Andrew Abdullah, 25, was expected to face a murder charge in the death of 48-year-old Daniel Enriquez. The Legal Aid Society, which is representing him, said it was just beginning to review evidence and urged the public not to make assumptions about the case.
“Mr. Abdullah deserves vigorous representation from his defense counsel, and that is what The Legal Aid Society will provide,” the organization said in a statement.
Enriquez was shot to death while heading to brunch Sunday morning, about six weeks after 10 people were shot and wounded in an attack on another subway train.
Enriquez’s sister Griselda Vile implored the city Tuesday to tackle crime more effectively.
“I’m pleading that this not happen to another New Yorker,” she told Fox News. “I don’t want my brother just to be a passing name in the media, a passing name in our normalcy post-pandemic.”
Chief of Detectives James Essig said witnesses told police the gunman paced the last car of a Q line train heading from Brooklyn to Manhattan, muttering to himself. The only words witnesses could make out: “No phones.”
Then he pulled out a gun and fired at Enriquez at close range, hitting him once in the chest, police said. The shooter fled after the train arrived at Manhattan’s Canal Street and ditched his gun by handing it to a stranger on the subway stairs, Essig said. Police eventually found the recipient and the gun, which had been reported stolen in Virginia in 2019.
Police asked for the public’s help in identifying the gunman, tweeting out surveillance photos of a burly man dressed in a hoodie on a hot day and, on Tuesday morning, Abdullah’s name and photo.
The Legal Aid Society said it had tried since Monday night to arrange for him to surrender in the subway shooting, but authorities instead made a “completely unwarranted and inappropriate” decision to apprehend him outside the organization’s office. An inquiry was sent to police.
Court records show Abdullah, 25, has two open criminal cases in New York City, one in Brooklyn stemming from an April 24 vehicle theft and the other for an alleged assault in Manhattan in 2020. Messages seeking comment were left with his lawyers.
“This horrific crime should never have happened,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a news briefing Tuesday.