I heard about what happened on the New York subway system early this afternoon at work, but did not have time to catch up on things until this evening.
As a Brooklyn bound N train pulled into the 36th Street Station, a man threw two smoke grenades and then shot 10 people. Thirteen other people required medical attention for smoke inhalation, shock and injuries from falling.
In the grand scheme of things, this could have been far worse as no fatalities resulted in the attack. This is of cold comfort as the perpetrator remains at large as of this writing and there could be more to come. The NYPD have identified a 62-year old African-American man named Frank James as "a person of interest" though have not named him a suspect. His social media posts indicate a hatred of other African-Americans with particular animus towards newly elected New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
If nothing else, today's attack has shown the vulnerability of the MTA and perhaps many other mass transit systems around the United States. Indeed, the camera or cameras at the 36th Street Station were inoperable and thus could not identify the suspect. If someone with a history of mental health issues could cause this much chaos then I shudder to think what could happen if the perpetrators had prepared and deployed a well-organized plan of terror.
Here in Boston area, the MBTA will be beefing up security. Of course, we are less than a week away from the Boston Marathon and we all know the terror which occurred on Boylston Street in 2013.
The impetus now is to get the "person of interest" and anyone else who might be involved off the streets and soon.
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