One of two bystanders shot when officers opened fire after a fare evasion stop escalated at a Brooklyn subway station is in critical condition, police said Monday.

The 49-year-old man was shot in the head at the Sutter Avenue L train stop in Brownsville Sunday afternoon, the NYPD said. A second bystander, a 26-year-old woman who was shot in the buttocks, was listed in stable condition after the shooting, police said.

What You Need To Know

  • One of two bystanders shot when officers opened fire after a fare evasion stop escalated at the Sutter Avenue L train stop in Brownsville is in critical condition, police said

  • The incident happened Sunday around 3 p.m., when two officers tried to stop a man after he evaded the fare, according to police

  • During the encounter, the man advanced toward one of the officers with his knife and both officers fired their guns, the NYPD said. The man, two bystanders and one of the officers were all struck by gunfire

The incident happened Sunday around 3 p.m., when two officers followed a 37-year-old man up to the subway platform after he evaded the fare, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said at a press conference Sunday.

When the officers told the man to stop, he refused, muttering “I’m going to kill you if you don’t stop following,” Maddrey said.

During the encounter, the officers noticed the man had a knife and gave him “numerous commands,” to which he responded, “No, you’re going to have to shoot me,” Maddrey added.

Maddrey said the officers tried to stop the man by tasing him after he jumped onto a train that had pulled into the station, but the tasers were “ineffective.”

When the man returned to the platform and advanced toward one of the officers with his knife, both officers fired their guns, he said.

The 37-year-old suspect, the two bystanders and one of the officers were all struck by gunfire, according to Maddrey. As of early Monday morning, the suspect was listed in stable condition, police said, adding that charges against him are pending.

The injured officer was expected to be released from the hospital on Monday, according to police.

Police are still searching for another person they say left the scene with the knife used in the incident.

Mayor Eric Adams, who visiting the wounded officer in the hospital Sunday, described the suspect as a “career criminal” who had been arrested more than 20 times.

Thomas Donlon, the NYPD’s new interim commissioner, said the agency would conduct a “full and thorough investigation” of the incident.

“We will be working through the timeline of today, but make no mistake, the events that occurred on the Sutter Avenue station platform are the results of an armed perpetrator who was confronted by our officers doing the job we asked them to do,” Donlon said.

Several local elected officials, however, were more critical of the police response.

“When we first heard the news, obviously it was shocking to hear a cop was shot, but now hearing that everyone that was hit was hit by, you know, so-called friendly fire, from police firing their weapons in the subway is very concerning, especially for someone trying to evade a $3 fare,” Brooklyn City Councilman Justin Brannan said Monday. “I’m expecting there’s going to be a full investigation. I think New Yorkers deserve that.”

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, meanwhile, said preliminary details about the shooting pointed to “so many multiple layers of failures that occurred on that subway,” adding that “we have to look at each of them.”

“We have to make sure we’re clear and look at the data, so that we can see we’ve had the safest summer that we’ve ever had, and know that that data means nothing to that police officer’s family, to those people on the train who were shot and the trauma it caused everybody around them,” Williams said. “Both of those things are very real, and we have to address them in a real way, and we have people who are trying to really deal with one or the other when both exist at the same time.”