Brooklyn cops shoot alleged fare-beater, also hit 2 bystanders and officer
www.nbcnewyork.com
Four people were injured Sunday afternoon at a Brooklyn subway stop in what started as officers’ attempts to apprehend a man accused of skipping the station turnstile.

Police opened fire on a subway platform in Brooklyn during a confrontation with an alleged fare-beater, striking the man cops said was armed with a knife, two straphangers caught in the fray, and one of the firing officers, NYPD officials said Sunday.

One of those two passengers hit by the cops’ bullets, a 49-year-old man, was hospitalized in critical condition after he was hit struck in the head, according to the NYPD.

The two officers who opened fire were assigned to patrol the Sutter Avenue subway stop in the 73rd precinct when they spotted a man skip the station turnstile and walk through an open gate toward the train platform, Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey explained at an evening press conference from Brookdale Hospital.

  • Gimpydude@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    16·
    3 months ago

    The subways used to have straps on the bars to hold on to during the ride. They’ve been called straphangers for a very long time. In the 80’s one of my brothers was part of the Straphangers Campaign.

    • Moneo@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 months ago

      Fair enough, my ignorance/age is showing.

      I’ve taken public transit all my life so I understood what it meant. Never heard the term in Canada before though.

    • clif@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 months ago

      So now can we call them “pole hangers”? “Pole grabbers”? “Pole holders”? If they’re listening to music and swaying in time, perhaps “pole dancers”?

      I’m sure there are better terms but I’m not very creative.