NYers afraid to ride
Big Apple commuters, transit workers and even the MTA’s top boss expressed fear over using public transportation on Monday after an unprovoked shooting
on the rails left a Goldman Sachs employee dead over the weekend.
“Children are afraid to travel to and from school, and parents are just as afraid . . . We are in a crisis right now, and it doesn’t seem [that] anything is changing. Things are escalating and becoming worse daily, and there seems to be no end in sight,” Mona Davids, a Bronx mom who founded the NYC School Safety Coalition, told The Post. “Since [Mayor Adams became] mayor it’s gotten worse . . . We need him to finally get stuff done and protect our children, protect our communities. Otherwise he’s going to be a one-term mayor, because this is completely out of control.”
On Sunday morning, Daniel Enriquez, 48, was headed to brunch on a northbound Q train when a suspect, who’d been pacing in the train car, suddenly pulled out a gun and fired at the straphanger at close range as the subway
crossed the Manhattan Bridge.
Once the train pulled into the Canal Street station, train operator Luis Irizarry tried to revive Enriquez. He was pronounced dead shortly after at Bellevue Hospital.
MTA boss Janno Lieber expressed every parent’s fear during a morning committee meeting when he revealed his children ride the subway line where the shooting occurred.
“The train involved in this shooting, the Q , is one I’ve ridden for 25 years. It’s a train that my kids use regularly and frequently. They’re all in college now, but they come home midnight, 1 a.m., coming back from Manhattan. It’s always felt safe,” Lieber said as he held up a wanted poster for the suspect.
“For so many New Yorkers the transit system is the only way to get around and to live their normal lives. You can’t do that if you’re scared to get up and go to brunch, that most New York of activities, on a Sunday morning for fear of being attacked.” Lieber called the slaying “an incredible setback” in the Big Apple’s effort to get back to normal.
“Last week we celebrated record ridership on the MTA system,” Lieber said.