Mayor Eric Adams declared Monday that it’s his “responsibility to keep New Yorkers safe” as he acknowledged that the broad-daylight Sunday morning murder of a Brooklyn man riding a Q train across the Manhattan Bridge was every Big Apple dweller’s “worst nightmare.”
Adams reacted to the harrowing incident during an unrelated press conference, when he was asked to respond to outcry from the family of the Goldman Sachs employee who was gunned down while on the way to brunch Sunday in the “random” attack.
“It is their worst nightmare. I use the subway a lot, I’m in the system a lot, and it’s unimaginable. You’re sitting down, going to brunch, going to visit a family member, a person walks up to you and shoots you for no reason,” he said. “Not a dispute — which is horrific to do it when [there is] a dispute — but that is the worst nightmare.
“It is my responsibility to keep New Yorkers safe. My heart goes out to that family, I am sorry that they lost their loved one. We have to continue to make sure that we’re not losing our loved ones,” the mayor told reporters in Upper Manhattan. “I understand their pain, and I have to make sure the city is safe, and I want that obligation.”
He added, “I thank God I am the mayor right now, and not those who don’t understand the urgency of this moment.”
On Sunday morning, a gunman shot and killed 48-year-old Daniel Enriquez “without provocation” while the Park Slope resident was riding the subway on the way to Manhattan, cops said. The shooter, who is still on the loose, was seen walking back and forth in a car of the Q train about 11:42 a.m., when he pulled out a gun and opened fire on the unsuspecting victim, police and sources previously said.
“Completely random,” a police source previously told The Post.
When the train arrived at the Canal Street station, the Q train operator attempted to revive Enriquez, but he could not be saved. He was pronounced dead shortly after at Bellevue Hospital.
The suspect handed off the gun to a homeless man, who then sold the murder weapon to a third person, according to police sources. Police are looking to speak with a 25-year-old Brooklyn man who is considered a person of interest in the killing, law enforcement sources said.
Later Sunday, kin of Enriquez told The Post the five boroughs “is not safe,” and implored the mayor, “Do your job.”
After the Monday morning press event, Adams rode the subway from Upper Manhattan down to City Hall and empathized with the victim of Sunday’s “horrific” shooting along with all Big Apple residents.
Asked if he believes the broad-daylight shooting — the fourth subway homicide of 2022 — will hamper efforts to urge employers to get workers to return to their offices after working remotely during the pandemic, Adams predicted that it would.
“Oh, yes, it has a chilling effect, just as the April shooting in Sunset Park had a chilling effect,” he said.
“And a New Yorker is resilient. We respond accordingly. We get hit in the gut. We get our air back and we know we have to move forward.”
The pro-business mayor vowed to speak with major New York City employers with the aim of assuaging their fears of mandating that employees commute to their workplaces.
“My job as the mayor is to make sure this system is safe, so that we don’t have that chilling effect,” he said. “And yes, I’m going to meet with business leaders, because they’re concerned, they’re concerned about the employees. Doesn’t matter if the employee is a restaurant worker, or a Goldman Sachs employee.”
“Historically, there was a vacuum when you have a shooting like this, and no one [was] sitting down with the industries that are impacted. I’m not doing that,” the mayor added, in a jab at former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s contentious relationship with large city employers. “We already have pre-existing relationships with my corporate leaders.”
Also Monday, Adams pledged to, at some point down the road, set up gun-detecting high-tech devices at Big Apple subway stations, as he scoffed at unnamed critics of the idea that he first floated following last month’s Sunset Park shooting.
“There are a small number of well-oiled Twitter users that are attacking everything we do to keep the city safe,” he said. “That’s noise.”
“One thing is for clear: I am going to use technology to keep New Yorkers safe.”
