New York Police Search for Three Men in Connection with Deadly Subway Shooting After Brawl

By Jonathan Allen and Rich McKay

NEW YORK – On Tuesday, New York City police were on the lookout for three men believed to be involved in a shooting that resulted in one death and five injuries. The incident occurred following a fight that broke out between what authorities described as "rival groups" on a subway train in the Bronx.

According to police, the altercation started as a verbal dispute inside a subway car just before 5 p.m. on Monday and quickly escalated. The first shot was fired inside the train, with the violence spilling onto the platform at the Mount Eden Avenue subway station.

Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny described the scene as chaotic during a press conference on Tuesday morning, noting, "You have a crowded train pulling onto a crowded platform, a shot being fired, now everybody’s trying to scramble to get off the platform."

Kenny reported that at least 19 bullets were discharged during the incident. A man, identified as 35-year-old Obed Beltran-Sanchez, was shot in the chest and pronounced dead at the scene. The Mexican Consulate in New York confirmed he was a Mexican citizen from Tehuacan, Puebla, and local reports stated he was a bystander.

Five individuals were taken to hospitals with nonfatal injuries, including a 14-year-old girl shot in the foot, a 14-year-old boy injured in the leg and ear, and a 71-year-old man who was shot in the thumb.

Police have released security camera images of two of the three suspects, described as men in their 20s wearing ski masks who fled the scene on foot.

Overall, crime on the New York subway system remains infrequent. Approximately 3.8 million trips are made on the system each weekday, with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority reporting only 570 felony assaults in 2023.

Transit authorities have stressed the rarity of shootings on the subway. The last mass shooting incident occurred in 2022, when a man with a handgun injured ten people on a Brooklyn train. A few weeks later, 48-year-old Daniel Enriquez was fatally shot on a Q train in what was deemed an unprovoked attack. Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat and former police captain, has responded to rising concerns among commuters by increasing police presence in subway stations.