NYC NOW - March 15, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is calling on the state to give him more power to force hospitalizations of people with severe mental illnesses after a subway shooting Thursday in Brooklyn. WNYC’s Janae Pierre and Brittany Kriegstein discuss the latest. And finally, WNYC’s Ryan Kailath stopped by the north east regionals for competitive college acapella.

NYC, Welcome to NYC now, your source for local news in and around New York City. From WNYC, I'm Jene Pierre. The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office says the man who shot another man on a crowded subway car Thursday appears to have acted in self-defense. The DA's office says at this stage, the evidence of self-defense means they will not be filing any charges against him. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is calling on the state to give him more power to force hospitalizations of people with severe mental illnesses.

Adam says the reason behind his request is the apparent condition of the person who started the fight and pulled out a gun. But it's unclear if the man has been diagnosed with the mental health condition. You've got to give us more power, Albany, to deal with involuntary removals for those who are dealing with severe mental health illness. When you look at that video, you'll see the next thing. between someone who appears to what I saw to be dealing with severe mental health illness, spark in a dispute. The man who pulled out the gun Thursday

was shot with the same weapon by the rider he was fighting with. He's in critical condition. Videos circulating on social media show panicked riders scrambling to the back of a subway car to shield themselves. I caught up with WMYC's

Brittany Kriegstein, who's been following the story. Give us a quick recap of what happened on that A-Train. So yes, on the A-Train, Thursday around rush hour. This was just before 5 p.m. A man and another man got into an altercation. Police say they don't know each other or don't appear to know each other. They were in a physical altercation and one of the men pulled out a gun and he proceeded to continue fighting with the other

man who eventually took that gun from him and shot the man with his own gun. There was also a woman involved according to witness video. She stepped in at one point and actually stabbed the the man who initially had pulled out the gun, and police are still looking for her at this time. Oh, wow. So we don't know anything else about this woman? Not much except that she appeared on witness video that was shared and now was viral after the incident, which painted a really clear picture of what happened and how it all went down. You visited the subway station where the shooting occurred. What did you hear from folks Friday morning when you went? What was the mood like there?

Sure. So people are anxious. People are definitely fearful. But time and again, they reiterated to me that there's no other way for them to get to work and school. The subway is a lifeline for New Yorkers. So no matter what happens, people know that they have to ride it. And they said that they will be increasingly vigilant, that they have been increasingly vigilant, that they're worried about their safety, even people who said they've been riding the subway for decades, are worried now. There's a sense of anxiety. But on its face, it was business as usual, busy platform, busy subway cars, and there were quite a few police patrolling the station. I want to talk a bit more about the sense of anxiety that folks are having because last week, Governor

Kathy Hokel deployed 750 National Guard troops into the city's subway system, and that was after a string of high-profile crimes in the transit system. Were there any guards or police presence at the subway station when you visited Friday morning or even at the time of the shooting on Thursday? So at the time of the shooting, it doesn't appear that there were. There were police. Just upstairs, actually, is the office for Transit District 30. So that's an NYPD unit that monitors Transit District 30. So there were police at that station. Quite a few of them that came running when they heard the shots. But there was still no way they could intervene in time. As far as National Guard this morning, I did not see any. Mm-hmm. Governor Hokel deployed these national guards to check bags, essentially, and the guy with a gun had it on his person, right? Yes, he did. He pulled it out.

Video shows pretty clearly that he, at one point in the altercation, set down his jacket, and then he picks it up, and he fishes the gun out of a pocket in his jacket. So unless you're really patting people down, you're not going to find these weapons. the woman who had the knife, she pulled it out. It was really hard to tell where it came from. So again, even subway riders are saying the National Guard checking people's bags, when's the last time somebody brought a bag full of weapons onto the subway? That's not really how people are carrying these weapons onto the trains. They have them, like you said, on their person. NYPD stats show crime on subways has been trending down in recent weeks, but many riders expressed and unease given all these reports of violence on the trains, you know, as you mentioned.

What have you heard from city leaders or MTA officials about their efforts to make riders feel safer? So the NYPD and the MTA are just touting the fact that this subway system moves millions of people every day, and there only are a handful of incidents, even serious ones. The chances are probably higher of getting into another kind of accident, a car crash, for example. riding the subway, they say remains overwhelmingly safe. But the thing that really makes New Yorkers fearful is that the subway is a place where people come face to face with people that they wouldn't normally interact with. And there aren't other options. You can't really get away from people who make you uncomfortable on the subway. And so when there are high profile incidents there,

it just creates and exacerbates the sense of anxiety. And so as much as elected officials are trying to remind people that the subways do remain overwhelmingly safe for the majority of riders. That message is just really hard to do away with this perception of fear and anxiety and crime that's just overwhelming people right now. Yeah, yeah. But also, I mean, on the other hand of this, on the other side of this, there are also writers who are like, you know, looking at this shooting and saying it is what it is, right? Yes, I heard that from quite a few writers today. And I I think that that's a way of saying we have to still ride the subway. We live in New York City. These are the risks that we take on when we travel and when we use public transit. And there's not really much we can do about it except look around and try to keep ourselves safe and try to keep other riders safe and call the authorities if necessary. That's WMYC's Brittany Crickstein. Brittany, thanks a lot.

Thank you so much, Jene. All right. Let's end this week on a high note, shall we? After the break, we'll hear all about competitive college acapella. Stay close. The sport of competitive college acapella is in the middle of playoffs right now. The finals take place in New York next month. WMYC's Ryan Kylath stopped by the Northeast regionals to get an early listen to the contenders. We're so happy to be here today.

We're going to sing and do our thing. In a concert space near Lincoln Center, the director of tonight's international competition of collegiate acapella is reminding the groups that made it here to breathe. Oh, it's not about winning, of course. But it's not not about winning. Spread out. Move up. Get in line with them.

Get in line with them. Of the eight groups here tonight, two will advance to the semifinals in Boston. There's no prize at the end, just bragging rights. And a spotlight. The organizers say talent scouts. keep an eye on ICCA. Stars like Sarah Borellis and John Legend came out of college Acapella.

Tonight's schools are all from the city. The Fordham F. Sharps, CUNY's Hunter College Hacapella, three groups from NYU, including one that's widely considered the favorite. We're the Nharmonics. I'm Julian. I'm N. Nor. Last time they were here, the N Harmonics won at all. Group leaders Julian Harper Gilkin and Norheila

say most of them are from NYU's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. And they've been Aka-obsessed their whole lives. Because I did high school Acapulah, and like, that was not cool. Definitely a big difference between high school. NYU's mixtapes say all the NYU groups like to support each other and keep things fun. Now rivalry with other schools. And who's the number one rival for you guys? Columbia. Are you kidding me?

The funniest part is, Columbia does not care about NYU. It's like one-sided rivalry. Apple, apple, pineapple, pineapple, watermelon, watermelon pie. The Columbia clefhangers are easy to spot. They're the ones doing homework in between warm-ups. Backstage, after sound checks and costumes and hair and makeup, Hunter College Hacapella is taking a moment. What is this tradition? I really love the faces you make in Coyotes giving.

At our last rehearsal, we tied string bracelets around each other, gave each other compliments. You really add so much to this group with your gorgeous tones. And now before the show, we're going out and giving each other more compliments and cutting off the bracelets to remind each other of what we have together. Senior Brooke Aeronakis says she and her friends got Hacapella up and running again after the club almost disbanded. Hunter is a public school system and unfortunately they just don't have the money to be able to pay for our arrangements. And so we have to apply to grants and really find money ourselves. And even then it's not really what other private schools get.

So we do know that we're coming in here with a disadvantage. It's welcome to make mistakes. You came in swinging like Apollo. I'll be feeling it's a farro. Let's keep it rolling for the Enharmonyx. While the judges deliberate on technicals, like timbre, pitch, and how well the voices blend, the groups retreat backstage. Until they're all called back.

All righty. Now, in first place, the Enharmonics! The Enharmonics won the quarterfinals and moved on to the semis in Boston. along with another group from NYU, the cleftomaniacs. Hunter College Hacapella came in third. Guys, how do we feel? I don't think it's really hit me that that was the last time, you know? Going out today, it feels sad that I'm not going to do it again.

But I'm really proud of us. On the Upper West Side, I'm Ryan Kailoff. Thanks for listening to NYC Now. from WNYC. Shout out to our production team. It includes Sean Boutage, Amber Bruce, Ave Carrillo,

Audrey Cooper, Leora Noam Kravitz, Jared Marcel, Wayne Showmeister, and Gina Vosti, with help from the entire WNYC Newsroom. Our show art was designed

by the folks at Buck, and our music was composed by Alexis Quadrado. I'm Jene Pierre. Have a lovely weekend. We'll be back on Monday.