Mass shootings can happen anywhere and everywhere. This is an unfortunate fact of life.
This is especially true if you use a controversially broad definition that just includes people being shot. Then we have the possibility of explosions that are far more common than anyone would care to acknowledge. Right now, we’re not sure quite which I’m about to talk about.
It seems as many as six people were injured in a New York City subway.
Five people were shot Tuesday morning at a subway station in Brooklyn, New York, law enforcement sources said.
Fire personnel responding to reports of smoke at the 36th Street station in the Sunset Park neighborhood found multiple people shot and undetonated devices, a New York City Fire Department spokesperson said. The fire department said 13 people were injured, but there were no details on what those injuries entailed.
Of course, there are a lot of questions still up in the air right now, such as whether those 13 people were also shot, whether anyone died, and so on. Right now, no one really knows, and we’re going to have to wait for more information.
HotAir’s Ed Morrissey, quoting an earlier AP report, wrote:
The FDNY reports that their personnel found “undetonated devices,” according to the Associated Press:
Fire personnel responding to reports of smoke at the 36th Street station in the Sunset Park neighborhood found multiple people shot and undetonated devices, a New York City Fire Department spokesperson said.
According to a law enforcement source briefed on the investigation, preliminary information indicated a suspect was dressed in construction attire.
Smoke would tend to indicate that something had already exploded in the area. The FDNY said that they got reports of both gunfire and an explosion before responding. The New York Times also reports on the smoke and the suspect’s description, but doesn’t include any report on explosions or explosive devices:
Several people were shot on the platform of a Brooklyn subway station during the Tuesday morning rush, officials said, a violent episode that heightened simmering fears about public safety that have hindered New York City’s push to recover from the pandemic.
Preliminary reports indicated that five people were shot, a law enforcement official said. The police were seeking a man with a gas mask and an orange construction vest, the official said.
Police officers were called to the 36th Street subway station, where the D, N and R lines pass through the Sunset Park neighborhood, at around 8:30 a.m., a Police Department spokeswoman said. They had also received reports of smoke inside the station.
I agree, that does suggest the possibility of an explosive device.
However, ABC suggested it might have been a smoke device:
BREAKING: Multiple people shot in separate incidents in New York City subway system, police sources say.
What's known so far: https://t.co/TEAz1CDB6f pic.twitter.com/XO2Zd7im2g
— ABC News (@ABC) April 12, 2022
To be fair, that’s also a possibility.
What’s important for everyone to remember right now is that we know remarkably little. We seem to know that people were, in fact, shot, but little else. As such, we’re not going to speculate as to anything involving potential legislation or whether or not previously passed laws failed.
That’s the story for another day.
Right now, we want to get answers as to just what happened. We want to know what the “undetonated devices” were and, perhaps most importantly, who was responsible.
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