Politics
47-Year-Old Man Is Fatally Shot in Brooklyn Subway Station
The man, who a neighbor said had recently started a new job, was shot in the head inside the Rockaway Avenue train station late Wednesday night.
A 47-year-old man was fatally shot in the head inside the Rockaway Avenue train station in Brooklyn late Wednesday night, the police said.
The man, identified by the police as Freddie Weston, was standing on the station’s mezzanine level around 11:15 p.m. when he was shot. A booth attendant heard the gunshot and discovered Mr. Weston, who was taken to Brookdale University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the police. The case is still under investigation, the police said, and there have been no arrests.
The shooting is the latest of several violent attacks this year at the Rockaway Avenue station, in the Ocean Hill neighborhood. Last week, a 76-year-old man was beaten by a group of teenage girls on the station platform, and in February a subway conductor was slashed while on duty.
While killings in New York City’s subway system are rare, there have been at least three fatal shootings on subway trains or in stations so far this year, and at least one fatal stabbing.
To address fears about violent crime in the subway, Gov. Kathy Hochul in March deployed hundreds of National Guard soldiers and State Police officers to patrol the system and check riders’ bags. Mayor Eric Adams announced in June that the Police Department was testing a gun-detecting scanner in subway stations to help ease riders’ concerns about safety.
Michelle Mitchell, a neighbor who knew Mr. Weston, who lived not far from the Rockaway Avenue station, described him as a man in love who was looking for a fresh start and had “no enemies who wanted to see him hurt.”
