Brooklyn man fatally shot inside NYC subway train tried to break up fight, reports say

New York City police are searching for a suspect Monday after a 45-year-old Brooklyn man was fatally shot inside a subway station over the weekend.

Police officers had responded to a 911 call of a man shot inside the Franklin Avenue Subway Station in Crown Heights on Sunday at around 8:15 p.m., the New York Police Department told USA TODAY. Officers discovered a man at the scene who sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the back and shoulder aboard a train inside the station.

Emergency personnel also responded to the scene and transported the man to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to NYPD. The man was later identified as Richard Henderson, who lived near the Franklin Avenue station.

"There are no arrests at this time and the investigation remains ongoing," the NYPD said.

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Reports: Richard Henderson was trying to break up a fight on subway

Police sources told local newspapers and stations that Henderson was fatally shot after he tried to break up an argument on the subway.

According to the New York Post and CBS New York, two other passengers on the subway were arguing over loud music when Henderson attempted to intervene. One of the passengers then pulled out a gun and opened fire at Henderson, hitting him in the back and shoulder.

Henderson is survived by his wife, three children, and two granddaughters, according to The New York Times.

"He got shot stepping into an altercation that he had nothing to do with," Jakeba Henderson, Richard Henderson's wife, told the Times. "He died a hero. He died doing what he did — taking up for the weak."

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Gun violence in New York City

According to Everytown for Gun Safety's annual report, New York has the second-strongest gun laws in the country, with one of the lowest rates of gun violence and gun ownership.

"In addition to having strong foundational laws, New York continues to be an innovator—enacting a requirement that all handguns sold in the state be equipped with microstamping technology as well as being the first state in the country to enact gun industry liability law that aims to hold gun manufacturers and dealers accountable for dangerous business practices," the gun control advocacy group said.

Gun violence surged in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic but NYPD crime data has shown the number of shootings decrease in recent years.

The NYPD reported over 960 shootings in 2023, which is about a 24% drop from the nearly 1,300 shootings recorded in 2022. And there were about 400 fewer shooting victims in 2023 compared to 2022, where more than 1,500 people were shot.

Despite the city's decline in gun violence, several subway shootings have made national headlines in recent years.

Last November, two people were shot on board a subway train in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn and sustained minor injuries, ABC7 New York reported.

In 2022, a 62-year-old man was arrested for setting off smoke bombs and shooting 10 people on a Manhattan-bound train arriving at a Brooklyn subway station. He was sentenced to life in prison last October.