NYC subway shooting: What we know after man killed in argument at Midtown station

This is Newsroom Live, and we are starting this morning inside the New York City subway station. Let's see, where are we right now? It looks like we're making our way toward the A, C, and E. We're down below in Penn Station. Everybody's moving around on their morning commute. It's about 10 o'clock, so a lot of people sort of already have gotten to where they are going. But one of the reasons why we're down in the subway, not just to take a look at all these folks walking around and all of our friends and people moving, doing whatever they have to do here in the city. But there was, I don't know if you heard about this, there was a deadly shooting that actually happened in the city this morning. It was over at the, not this morning, happened this weekend. It was over on the 53rd Street, 7th Avenue station, so the west side. A very busy spot there in Midtown. Deadly confrontation in the middle of a busy Midtown subway. the suspected gunman this morning they are still looking for him police say there was some kind of argument between two men on the northbound platform at the 7th avenue station near west 53rd street okay so you see this guy right here with the red jumpsuit this is who they're looking for it moved into a subway car then spilled back onto the platform where investigators say one man pulled out a gun and shot the other one in the chest um can we jump back to the video down below again real quick because i just want to explain the context of what's happening here so you see a lot of mta police you see um some of the other uh folks here you might see some media members as well because we are expecting republican gubernatorial candidate bruce blakeman here at any moment um he has uh yeah there we go some media members he has uh taken the subway out from long island and he's going to be talking here at penn station in just a little bit when that happens, we're going to try to bring it to you live. Obviously, Blakeman most likely will talk about this in context to safety and crime in the transit system, some of the things people are concerned about in relation to the upcoming election. Governor Kathy Hochul does have an event at 11 o'clock this morning, and we expect that there will be some questions to her about what's happened here, including Mayor Zoran Mamdani. We'll get to some of that in just a minute. First, though, I do want to stick with this. Let's get out to Jessica Formoso. Jessica is uh Jessica, where are you? She's outside of the actual yeah, you're outside of the actual spot where this happened um Jessica, can you talk us through I gave a little bit of context here yep can you talk us through um what we know I mean this was a terrifying situation for people here in the city um very busy time right here in the weekend a very terrifying situation Dan because this is a busy busy area Midtown 53rd Street and 7th a lot of hotels here in this area which means a lot of tourists in this area. Right there, if you go up to 7th Avenue, you can keep walking down, you know you're gonna hit Times Square eventually. So this is always packed. And you can only imagine on a Saturday afternoon, it was just before 12:30 when this shooting took place underground on the platform. We know that according to police, this was not a random shooting. But they do tell us that both the suspect and the victim, Well, what happened was that they got into some type of argument. It went from the train onto the platform. And then on the platform is when that suspect pulled out his gun and shot the victim in the chest. Police did release the victim's identity last night. We know that he is from the Bronx, 26-year-old Daryl Rodriguez of the Bronx. Now, let's go back to those photos because I think it's important to share the photos of the suspect, Dan, because police released his photo, images that were captured here outside of the subway station. As you know, there are cameras everywhere. So you can see this is the suspect police are looking for. We're talking about this man here. He is wearing this red tracksuit, black vest, black backpack and a mask. Unfortunately, we cannot see his face because he was wearing a black mask the entire time. And this is something you're going to be speaking with Passengers United. that they want these masks to be banned in the subways. We'll get to that in just a few minutes. But first, so the shooting takes place, the victim is rushed to the hospital where he is pronounced dead. We did speak with some subway riders this morning who are pretty nervous and a little bit afraid. One tourist I spoke with, he's been here for about a month. And he tells me that he takes this train from here, from this particular subway. And he said, it could have been me. I mean, I mean, if that bullet went flying and hit an innocent bystander, he's like, I'm pretty scared to be in New York City. I think we have a sound, if you can take a listen. It's very surprising, you don't hear about that stuff around this area. Lots of tourists and stuff. So she said it wasn't a tourist that got shot, so that's good. I thought as a commuter and a tourist, it's dangerous. So I'm a bit scared, I have respect for the story. So I think to take care of each other, yeah, it's tragic. Were you at this train station, happened to be here? I was waiting for the train and it got delayed, so I decided to walk. And to hear that it happened just before 12.30 in the afternoon. It's tragic. It can just happen any time, right? So we should always have an eye open. Pretty scary that it easily could have been me. Well, I mean, I heard it wasn't a random accident, but easily could have been me. I take that subway sometimes on the weekends to come up here. So, not great to hear that that happened in a subway that I'm familiar with. Are you nervous now? Was a little bit scared, uneasy, or just going around about your day? Maybe. I mean, it didn't even occur to me until you stopped me. So, a little. So, Jessica, I know we're saying this is not a random shooter. But when we say that, are we saying that it wasn't like a bullet that hit an innocent bystander? or that these two people knew each other before they had the encounter on the subway or it appears that maybe it was some kind of thing that happened on the subway and this guy was actually trying to shoot the person he got into this argument with or that it was something that carried over that they knew each other for a while and it was some kind of vendetta. Do we know at this point? Do you understand what I'm asking you? Yeah, so what police have told us is that when they mean it's not a random shooting, meaning that this wasn't a random, some guy pulled out his gun in the middle of the day and started shooting at random and hit an innocent bystander. No, that's not what they're saying. They're saying it's not random because the two, unclear though, if they've known each other for a while, but they obviously got into an argument of some sort, a dispute. It seems like it was on the platform, then went onto the train, they both went onto the train, then back onto the platform, and then went back on the platform. And that is when that suspect, the suspect pulls out the gun and shoots 26-year-old Daryl Rodriguez in the chest. So I think that is what when police say it's not random, it's not like someone just in the middle of the day decided to pull out a gun. There was an argument between the two. Now, the question is, do those two know each other from back when, you know, that police could not tell us that. But clearly, when you hear from commuters, you know, they are concerned, right? Because even if they knew each other, the question is, what if that bullet would have went flying and hit somebody else, not the intended target? Either way, I mean, this is just terrifying, no matter how you put it, that this has happened in broad daylight at a busy subway station. And I just want to give you some stats that we looked up from the NYPD when it comes to crime in the transit. So it's slightly up, just 1.6%, but still, there have been 1,697 crimes committed in the transit system year to date, compared to 1,670 during the same time last year. So that's about 27 more crimes. That said, though, the commissioner says that the uptick is driven mostly by felony assault. So, you know, we want to be clear. This is not people just randomly shooting people here in the subway system daily. No, that is not what is happening. This was a case that happened this weekend. Obviously, concerns among many New Yorkers concerned. And I think when you hear a shooting in a subway station, it's alarming. Right. But again, to be clear, when we talk about those numbers that the NYPD has given us, again, these are mostly driven by felony assault. So please don't go out there thinking that there are shootings here in New York City at subway stations every day because that is not the case. The possibility, as we've just seen. Jessica, thank you very much for the clarification on that one.