Mayor Eric Adams is calling for increased power to involuntarily hospitalize people with mental health issues in the wake of a bloody shooting that broke out on a subway train on Thursday evening.
Police said two men, whom police officials identified late Friday morning as Younece Obuad, 32, and Dajuan Robinson, 36, got into a physical fight aboard an A train after Robinson began arguing with Obuad. Police said Robinson drew a gun and Obuad wrested it from him, shooting Robinson “more than once” as the train pulled into Brooklyn’s Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets station.
It’s the latest in a series of violent incidents on city subways that have prompted officials to flood train stations with NYPD officers conducting patrols and bag checks. Gov. Kathy Hochul recently sent in nearly 1,000 National Guard troops to assist with the bag checks in a move she said was meant to battle the perception of violence on trains.
But videos of the Thursday shooting depicting people cowering on the train floor indicate that the effort has not been successful.
Adams said on Friday morning that he needed Albany to increase his powers to detain people with mental health conditions.
“When people look at public safety, they look at the police aspect of it, but there are other connections that must be filled in that are not, such as we’re attempting to do in Albany around those with severe mental health illnesses, involuntary removals,” the mayor said during an interview on NY1. “When you look at many of these random acts of violence that you’re seeing, you’re seeing that it’s dealing with people who are dealing with some real severe mental health illness.”
“You’ve got to give us more power, Albany, to deal with involuntary removals for those who are dealing with severe mental health illness,” Adams said during an interview on 77 WABC later that morning.
Robinson is in critical but stable condition, police said. It’s unclear if he’s been diagnosed with a mental…
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