NYC NOW - Midday News: Mamdani Returns from Uganda, NYC Eyes Changes to Senior Housing, Deadly Subway Fight in Brooklyn, and Midtown Office Shooting Sparks Security Concerns

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is back in New York City after a nearly two-week trip to Uganda. Meanwhile, the Adams administration is proposing changes to a senior housing subsidy to create more family-sized units. In Brooklyn, police say a man was killed by a train after a fight on the Prospect Park subway platform early Wednesday morning. Plus, the fatal shooting inside a Midtown office building this week is raising concerns about safety in buildings with high-profile tenants. Security Expert Brian Higgins joins us to help us understand how buildings with prominent tenants are guarded, and what corporate security teams are thinking about in the aftermath of such an incident.

Welcome to NYC now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, July 30th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Democratic mayoral nominee, Zeran Mamdani, is back in New York City after a nearly two-week trip to Uganda with his wife and passing through JFK Airport on his return without any incident. Mbondani's campaign withheld details of his travels to avoid him facing difficulty re-entering the country, even though he's a U.S. citizen, some Republicans have called the government to deport him. In other news, the Adams administration is trying to increase the number of family-sized units by reconfiguring a key senior housing subsidy. WNYC's David Brin reports.

The city uses the senior affordable rental apartment program to subsidize the development of new housing for low-income seniors. The program has financed 7,300 apartments since 2014. but all of them are studios or one bedrooms. The city's housing agency will now require developers to include two bedrooms and at least 20% of new apartments to qualify for the program in some neighborhoods. Agency officials say a third of older adults live with their children and need these larger units. Senior housing developers and advocates say it's a good idea, but needs more funding. Police say a train hit and killed a man after a fight on a Brooklyn subway platform.

the NYPD's officers responded to a 911 call about an assault in progress at the Prospect Park Station on the Q&B lines around 2.30 in the morning found a man unconscious with severe head trauma. Police say they have a person of interest in custody but have not made an arrest. 95 in Central Park with sunshine and low humidity, slim chance of mid-afternoon showers and thunderstorm sunny and 95 feeling like 104 with a calm wind. Stick around. There's more to come. They're shooting in a Midtown Manhattan office building this week is raising concerns about whether any additional security measures could have prevented it. Brian Higgins is a security expert and a former Bergen County Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety. He joins us now to help us understand how buildings with prominent tenants are guarded and what corporate security teams are thinking about in the aftermath of Monday's incident. Brian, as a security expert, what was your initial reaction to this news?

Good morning, Michael. It's a horrific event, as are all these active shooter events, people losing lives. The question really is, what brings a person to this point where they want to take the lives of so many people? From when we know about this case, are there additional securing measures that could have prevented it? You know, Michael, and after the fact that... review is always in order after these incidents and we'll know more as that's done. But the fact that the matter is, it's very difficult to anticipate crimes like this and know what measures will be needed at the time. When you think of security measures, particularly those in high-rise, high-occupancy buildings, you have to have this balance between allowing your business

to occur, your clients, your vendors, your employees to come in and out. While at the same time, providing for a level of security once they do enter your building. So the balance of having a fortress mentality where you can't get in the door, it takes multiple layers to get into your building, while at the same time allowing for people to get in and out and move freely, it's very difficult balance to strike. And you would think someone walking, anyone walking into a building and seeing a security guard and, of course, seeing an off-2D office,

officer in an NYPD uniform would act as somewhat of a deterrent against criminal behavior? Yeah, look, there were layers here that should have prevented this. You know, we now know that the shooter, we believe we've been told that the shooter had mental health issues. So if he had documented mental health issues, then there were services and programs that didn't work to prevent this. He came through states like New Jersey and New York, where the firearm he was carrying and crossed state lines was illegal. The fact that he was carrying that weapon, walking through Manhattan, in and of itself is illegal. And then, as you said, you have an armed police officer, you have security, you have other measures in place in that

building, and yet he went undeterred and carried out his intent. This building was home to a lot of really well-known companies, the National Football League, investment from Blackstone and Manhattan is full of offices just like this. Is that something corporate or building security thinks about? It does. What you're building houses, the companies that are there, our company has some very high-profile clients who from time to time are targets of protests. That adds another layer of security and should be considered in any security measures. Do you think this event will change how we address building security in New York City going forward? Unfortunately, Michael, what will happen is there'll be a lot of discussion about this for now.

And as the weeks go on, if another shooting doesn't occur, other topics become the issue. So I hope that we can continually look at measures that could be put in place. Measures that we can't even think about yet, that don't look like a fortress, that don't seem to be. over security, security, but at the same time, prevent something like this from happening. Brian, what do we know works best to secure situations to secure buildings like this? So the number one is early detection. You know, there are camera systems out there, off-the-shelf camera systems, security camera systems, that can detect a person carrying a firearm. So you see how he, an individual got out of his vehicle, double parked, which should have brought

attention on a very busy street and walk to the building carrying what the police commissioner called an M-4-style weapon, that should have been detected by anybody on the street. But it could have been picked up by a camera. So the first rule is to try and identify any threat outside the building and then to implement security measures that will prevent this from happening. And really, there are no silver bullets. There is no one or two layers of security that will prevent this. We look at security measures as a delay so that this individual is delayed, it would reduce the amount of victims.

The police officer who drew fire was doing his job by literally delaying this individual from harming civilians. So every security measure we have should be a measure that delays the individual from getting towards to victims. Our guest has been Brian Higgins. He's a security expert and a former bird. County Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety. Brian, good to talk to you again. Thank you, Michael. Good talking to you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep guys. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.