In 1980, through the first eight months of the year, the crime-riddled New York City subway system witnessed 15 murders, up from ten over the first eight months of 1979. Saturday morning’s murder on the D train was just the second such incident of 2009. It’s no wonder, then, that three days later, the city’s news outlets are still buzzing with features and stories about the underground killing.
While we explored the lessons riders could learn from this murder, the police response to an on-board crime in a subway car filled with people has led to some debate as well. After Gerardo Sanchez allegedly stabbed Dwight Johnson and the subway conductor and police were alerted to the crime, the subway car doors were sealed. Passengers were left inside with the killer for a few minutes until police could secure the area to ensure that Sanchez would not be able to escape.
Yesterday, facing some criticism over the decision to leave innocent bystanders in a car with a knife-wielding killer, NYPD Commissioner Tom Kelly defended the decision:
Kelly said the NYPD took the right steps early Saturday morning to contain Gerardo Sanchez, a Bronx man accused of stabbing Dwight Johnson to death over a subway seat on the D train. “They [the passengers] pulled the alarm, they stopped the train between stations. As a result of that, when the train pulled into the station, officers were there, they got on the train and arrested the individual,” Kelly said.
The decision to keep all of the train doors locked except one while police took a few additional minutes to arrest the alleged killer as about 30 horrified passengers looked on was met with questions about police policy and procedure..
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the train was immediately met by police — and he dismissed questions that police left passengers locked in the subway car with a murderer — again noting that a passenger had pulled the emergency cord that had briefly stopped the train in the tunnel. He said police boarded the train through one open door in the front as soon as it was in the station. “Opening all doors and letting everybody run in every direction and having a murderer back out on the streets doesn’t make a lot of sense to me,” he said..
Meanwhile, the Daily News did one of its person-on-the-street stories, and those quotes featured for print all were critical of the decision. Just one person — a lawyer, to boot — defended the MTA. “It shows people in the future that if you commit a crime on the train, you’re going to get caught,” Leo Genn said. “My instinct is they did the right thing.”
The Post takes a more critical approach. The problem, the paper alleges, stemmed from the person who decided to pull the emergency brake. In a statement to Gothamist, Charles Seaton clarified Transit’s view on the pulling cord. “Use the emergency cord only to prevent an accident or injury…” the Transit spokesman said. “But if your train is between stations and someone aboard becomes ill, do not pull the emergency cord. The train will stop, preventing medical professionals from reaching the sick passenger. A sick person is better off if the train goes to the nearest station where police and medical services will be waiting or can be quickly summoned, without interruption.”
With crime down in the subways, riders are accustomed to police responses and emergency brake procedures. Murders almost never happen underground these days, and the attention this one has garnered is just proof positive of the progress the city has made in combating subway crime over the last 30 years. I think the police acted expeditiously to catch a killer, and I hope the 20-30 people in the D train on Saturday morning recognize that. Still, it must have been one terrifying experience.
20 comments
One thing I still haven’t heard is what type of car it was, and whether the doors between cars were locked (and if they unlock when the brake is pulled). I can’t say what I would do if I were a passenger on that train — maybe I’d be frozen in terror — but I’d like to think I’d move to the next car.
On second thought, we don’t know where in the car this happened. If it happened towards the back of the car, there would be no way out, being the first car on the train. I agree though, as I mentioned in a comment to an earlier post, pulling the cord was the wrong thing to do.
It was a D train so it had to be an R-68 or R-68A. The end doors are locked on those cars.
On the subway or any other train
THERE IS ONLY ONE REASON TO PULL THE EMERGENCY BRAKE:
IF A PASSENGER IS CAUGHT IN A DOOR OR BEING DRAGGED BY A MOVING TRAIN.
Agreed Peter. I don’t know why the press is lauding the use of the emergency brake. People need to know that the brake should essentially NEVER be used.
Does anyone know in which car of the train this happened? I haven’t read that in any of the reports.
Front car, Eric.
I haven’t actually READ any newspaper story where it states what car this was, but I have red accounts that seem to place the motorman in the same car. So it must have been the first car. Also this has been stated in passing iin a comment or two here. Unless somebody is confusing the motorman with the conductor or there is some other error in the stories, it was the first car. It also seems to be implied, but not stated, that the doors were locked.
The time was 2 AM Saturday. The killer had gotten on the train at 34 St. Normally he took the #4 from Union Square (14th Street) to 161 Street (Yankee Stadium) and switched to the D train there, but there was some kind of track work or other service interruption, so he couldn’t use the Lexington Avenue line and he took the BMT to 34 Street instead. The stabbing took plsace while the train was going from 50 Street (Rockefeller Center) to 7th Avenue. This means this didn’t happen right when Gerardo Sanchez, the killer, got on the train – unless – wait – this has not been in the stories – unless he took the F train first (probably because it came first and he didn’t want to wait in the station) and got off on 50 Street to switch to the D. Come to think of it, that makes the most sense. Even if you might connsider it irraational to take the F because there could be no possible advantage in riding two stops because you’d still have to wait the same length of time for the D train – in fact the only real difference would be that you would be less likely to get a seat, or a seat you liked. There was zero chance the F would change its route to go to the Bronx and both trains stopped at all the same stops. But there would be less continuous standing and waiting in one gulp.
at 2 am the time between trains is much harder to figure, so i doubt he took the f first. he probably got on the d at 34th street, and it took a few stops for an argument to escalate.
In that case, I wonder why no one thought to bang on the operator’s door.
Most accounts have the murder occuring in the front of the car, with the rest of the passengers scrambling to the rear of the car to get away from the killer. That would explain not banging on the conductor’s door.
So if the end doors don’t unlock when the emergency brake is pulled, when do they unlock? I thought they were supposed to unlock “automatically” in an emergency.
Good point. What if the car were on fire. I always thought the doors were to unlock too. I know you NEVER pull the break in the event of a fire. Worst thing would be to stop a car in flames in between stations. I can’t believe those doors were locked after the brake was engaged.
Ah, okay. That makes sense. Thanks.
Alls well that ends well, but I would never have pulled the brake. What if this guy decided to just go crazy because he knew he was already fucked.
It is surely easier and less expensive for the city if the murderer is trapped and handed on a silver platter for them. For everyone else in that car and the safety of others, it was not a good idea.
I agree Mike — and my comments about the brake being pulled are not to support that decision (although, if it wasn’t pulled, the train pulled into the next station, and all the doors opened because the conductor didn’t know any better, the end result might have been worse. The killer could have gotten free; boarding passengers might have tainted evidence, etc.) Those intercoms on the R142s and newer are really a good idea – I wonder if old trains should be retrofit with them.
Definitely. For the sake of catching the murderer, pulling the break is the best way to go. If the brake was not pulled, the chances are good the murderer would have slipped away for the time being. While the odds are great that he would have been caught eventually, it would have taken a lot more time, money and manpower.
I doubt the murderer would have done something further once out of the train. His only goal would be to get away.
There’s more about the subway murder in both the New York Daily News (4/5 of page 5) and New York Post (70% of a a column or 14% of page 9) today. They amplify thjings, add details and correct some information.
First, Dwight Johnson was NOT instantly killed. What you could say maybe was that he was mortally wounded. (This reminds me of the person who was stabbed in the heart I think in Times Square, but he was rushed into I think St Vincent’s Hospital – I think some kind of annex that’s now been closed – where there just happened to be an operating room and surgeons and nurses ready for open heart surgery and he was conneceted to a heart lung machine and his life was saved. I don’t know if it would have been possible to save Dwight Johnson’s life had this taken place 15 seconds from a ready to go operating room and a extremely skilled surgeon.)
Anyway, the Daily News reports today, Johnson was actually screaming. He was screaming “I’m dying, I’m dying”. All this according to Vincent Martinez, the security guard who pulled the emergency break. Blood was coming out of his mouth and spraying out of his neck. Meanwhile, Geraldo Sanchez was following him, and he said: “You should have let me sit down.” (Earlier reports said that Johnson was found dead in his seat. Maybe that was a different seat than the one he had started at)
Everybody apparently backed away from Sanchez toward one end of the car (the front apparently) and Martinez was banging on the motorman’s door, but he didn’t react.
” I was banging and banging on the door to where the guy drives the train, but he didn’t answer.” says Martinez.
Apparently not getting the motorman’s attention (although maybe the motorman was only following MTA rules not to take hs attention away from the controls or let anyone else into his cab) he pulled the emergency brake. He didn’t want the stabber to simply walk out at the next stop. As far as he knew, the motorman was oblivious to what was going on.
So the train stopped. At that point the motorman looked out, and Martinez pusheed his way into the cab. And he said to him “Some guy just got stabbed and he’s bleeding all over the place.” The motorman then told that you’re not supposed to pull the emergency break and he should have just let the train go on.
The motorman radioed police. They told him to keep the doors closed when the train arrived in the station. It took him only about a minute to get the train train moving again. Martinez did not go ouy of the motorman’s cab until the train arrived at the station.
Meanwhile (reported yesterday) Sanchez managed to get his knife outside the train and onto the tracks. When the police arrived he was standing around in the back with other passengers acting like nothing had happened. (I did something?)
Sounds like when Sanchez disposed of the knife the other passengers were no longer afraid of him and gotclose in order to gte closde to theh victim.
At some point paramedics arrived and tried to revive Johnson (with his brain circulation in shreds and having lost much blood?) but couldn’t do anything. (As I said only maybe a fully prepped operating room, if anything, could have helped. They couldn’t do anything for him there)
The police questioned everybody about the attasck. At that time, Martinez did not admit to pulling the emergency brake and not even to seeing anything. He says he was afraid of getting arrested (for pulling the emergency brake?) That’s why the police report says an aunknown passenger pulled the emergency brake.
Mayor Bloomberg, probably as part of his instinct to defend whatever happens if it is done by somebody working for the city, defended closing the doors. “If all the doors are open and everybody runs in every direction…you have a murderer back on the street…[That] doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.” The Daily News says he wsas defending pulling the emergency brake, but tht quote simply defends closing the doors. What would have hapepneed if he had not done so?
Martinez says that he saw the whole thing. Johnson did NOT throw a punch. It took only about ten seconds from when he was first asked to move his bag till when he was stabbed. Martinez says Sanchez pulled the steak knife from his pocket.
Meanwhile, the New York Post managed to contact an aunt of the killer, who is, at 45, only 8 years older than he is. She apparently didn;t know much about the situation – that he wass involved or maybe that anything had happened.
It quotes her as saying:
“Oh, no, what did he do this time? Did he finally kill someone? I’ve been afraid of that for a long time….He’s been in and out of trouble most of his life. He was arrested a time or two when he was younger for starting fights.”
The New York Post puts the number of riders in the car at the time of the stabbing as “about 30.”
[…] with helping them secure the 53rd St. station following Dwight Johnson’s murder, officials warned against pulling the brake as it often delays emergency response teams. Anyway, Vincent Martinez’s story is […]
I’m glad Martinez pulled the cord. he did exactly the right thing. to quote dennis miller, I don’t want to die “because Gus saw a woodchuck” but hell, sometimes you just gotta make that call.
[…] to the scene of the crime and trapped innocent bystanders in a car with a killer. Either way, it made sense even if Transit officials urged riders to eschew pulling the […]