New York City police are searching for an armed suspect after a man was shot and killed Saturday afternoon during an argument on a subway platform in Midtown Manhattan.
The shooting occurred around 12:20 p.m. on the northbound E train platform at the 53rd Street-Seventh Avenue subway station, according to the NYPD. Investigators said an altercation broke out between individuals on the platform, spilled into an E train car, and moved back onto the platform before gunfire erupted.
The victim, an unidentified man in his 30s, was struck once in the chest, police said. Emergency medical workers transported him in critical condition to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 1 p.m., according to a report by Gothamist.
Search for the suspect
Following the shooting, the gunman fled the station on foot and was last seen heading north along Seventh Avenue, investigators said. As of Sunday, no arrests had been reported, and police confirmed that no firearm had been recovered.
Detectives distributed surveillance photographs showing a person of interest dressed in a red tracksuit beneath a black vest, wearing a dark face covering and carrying a backpack. The NYPD indicated that the encounter was not a random attack, though authorities told Gothamist that it was still unclear whether the victim and the shooter were acquainted.
A witness who identified herself as Miller told ABC7 that her daughter saw the shooter immediately following the blast. “We heard five rounds and my daughter said ‘omg there’s the shooter,'” Miller told the station.
Transit disruption and investigation
The incident, which unfolded steps away from Broadway theaters and Carnegie Hall, disrupted midtown rail travel across multiple subway routes. Uptown E trains were temporarily redirected over the F line from West Fourth Street to Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue, while northbound C and D trains bypassed the Seventh Avenue stop while detectives gathered evidence, ABC7 reported.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials stated that transit personnel were coordinating closely with police detectives to review security video.
“Guns have no place in transit which is why we’ve strongly supported New York State’s legal fight to make sure it’s illegal to carry them in the subway system,” MTA Chief Security Officer Michael Kemper said in a statement reported by ABC7. “This was evidently a dispute between two individuals that ended tragically, and we have coordinated with the NYPD on the investigation from the earliest minutes — especially to retrieve video from platform and train car cameras.”
Transit shootings remain uncommon given that millions of commuters use the transit system daily, but NYPD statistics show four people had been shot across the subway network this year through Oct. 11, up from two in the identical timeframe in 2025, Gothamist reported. Meanwhile, citywide homicides have fallen 20 percent compared to the same period in 2025, according to police data reported by The Shade Room via the Associated Press.
The investigation within Transit District 1 and the Midtown North Precinct is ongoing. Police are urging anyone with information about the suspect to contact Crime Stoppers.
