By Brendan O’Brien
(Reuters) -A man suspected in the fatal weekend shooting of a New York City subway rider, less than two months after a mass shooting on the mass transit system, was taken into custody on Tuesday, police said.
Andrew Abdullah, 25, was arrested in the slaying of Brooklyn resident Daniel Enriquez, 48, who was shot to death while he rode in a subway car on Sunday morning, a New York Police Department spokesperson said.
Abdullah was photographed by Reuters walking into the NYPD’s 5th Precinct station in handcuffs with a police detective escort. An NYPD Twitter message also confirmed the man had been “placed into custody.”
No details about his arrest were immediately available.
In a Tweet earlier on Tuesday, the department said police were searching for Abdullah as a suspect in the shooting and posted a photograph of him, asking for the public’s help in locating him.
Enriquez, who worked for investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc, was riding a train crossing a bridge from Brooklyn into lower Manhattan when he was shot in the chest without provocation, authorities said.
Enriquez was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital. Authorities say the suspect fled the train after it pulled into the Canal Street station.
Sunday’s attack adds further pressure on Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain and Brooklyn borough president who made crime and public safety a focus of his campaign for the office last year.
In February, the second month of his term, Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul promised to increase police patrols and mental health outreach in response to a spate of attacks in the subway system, which is run by the state-controlled Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
On April 12, the subway system saw one of the most violent attacks in its history when a man set off a smoke bomb and opened fire in a subway car. The attack left 23 people injured, including 10 hit by gunfire.
A suspect in the attack, 62-year-old Frank James, was arrested a day later. He was indicted earlier this month on terrorism and other federal charges.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis)
