Police officers are guarding the outside of Manhattan subway station, where a suspect fled after a man was shot dead on May 22. Dakota Santiago / The New York Times News Service
A man wanted in a deadly shooting apparently not caused aboard a New York City subway train was arrested on Tuesday, hours after authorities posted his name and photo on social media and implored the public that would help him find it.
Andrew Abdullah, 25, was expected to face charges in the death of Daniel Enriquez, 48. The Legal Aid Society, which represents him, said it was just beginning to review the evidence and urged citizens not to make assumptions about the case.
“Mr. Abdullah deserves strong representation from his defense attorney, and that is what the Legal Aid Society will provide, “the organization said in a statement.
Enriquez was shot dead while going to lunch on Sunday morning, about six weeks after 10 people were shot in an attack on another subway train.
Enríquez’s sister, Griselda Vile, begged the city on Tuesday to tackle crime more effectively.
“I beg you not to let this happen to another New Yorker,” he told Fox News. “I don’t want my brother to be just a passing name in the media, a passing name in our normalcy after the pandemic.”
Court records show Abdullah, 25, has two criminal cases open in New York City, one in Brooklyn for a car theft on April 24 and the other for an alleged assault in Manhattan in 2020 Messages asking for comments were left to his lawyers.
“This horrific crime should never have happened,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell told a news conference on Tuesday.
Police said witnesses reported that the gunman walked on the last car of a Q-line train going from Brooklyn to Manhattan, pulled out a gun and shot Enriquez at close range. The shooter fled after the train reached Manhattan’s Canal Street.
Police enlisted the help of the public to identify him, tweeting surveillance photos of a burly man dressed in a hooded sweatshirt 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 organize the surrender in the subway shooting, but authorities made a “completely unjustified and inappropriate” decision to detain him outside the office. of the organization. An investigation was sent to the police.
“We need all eyes on this,” tweeted New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell.
Enriquez worked for Goldman Sachs’ global investment research division, where CEO David Solomon called him a dedicated and esteemed employee who “represented our culture of collaboration and excellence.”
The son of Mexican-American parents, Enriquez spent his early childhood in Brooklyn before his family moved to California and then to Seattle, his partner, Adam Pollack, told the New York Post. Vile said both moves were sparked by violence in the family’s neighborhoods in New York and Southern California.
Enriquez returned to New York City in the mid-1990s to pursue a master’s degree in Latin American studies at New York University. His yen for learning did not stop there: during the coronavirus pandemic, he learned to play the guitar and to speak Portuguese and Italian, his family and partner said.
“I was constantly in self-improvement mode,” brother-in-law Glenn Vile told Fox News.
The eldest of five children, Enriquez took care of his siblings and parents, his sister said. About an hour before he was killed, Enriquez sent a text message to his siblings advising them to check on their parents, who have health problems, he said.
The seemingly random shooting further shook a city that was already concerned about public safety. Many types of crime have recovered after falling sharply before the pandemic when people stayed home. And concern about crime has risen.
In the first five months of 2022, the number of shootings in the city fell slightly compared to the same period last year and the number of murders has dropped by 12% so far compared to last year. But New York is still on the verge of the second highest number of homicides since 2011, after nearly a decade of record lows.
In terms of violent crime, the city is still substantially safer now than during the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.
Crime is now the main concern of the city’s voters by far, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this month. It polled 1,249 registered city voters and has a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points.
Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who campaigned with promises to make the city safer, said his administration will assess how it is deploying agents to the extensive subway system.
Adams said there were no police officers in the train car where Enriquez was shot.
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