Murder rate in New York subways rises by 60% and reaches record level

The number of murders on the city's subway system has increased by 60 percent so far this year – a worrying trend as crime on the rail network has declined overall.

According to the NYPD, as of September 8, eight people were massacred in subway cars or at train stations, compared to just five during the same period last year.

The increase in the murder rate is approaching the 25-year high reached in 2022 with 10 murders.

From 1997 to 2020, according to the NYPD's first public data, there were never more than five murders in the subway in a single year.

“It's not a safe environment to wait for the train,” said Jakeba Dockery, 42, whose husband, Richard Henderson, was shot and killed on a Brooklyn No. 3 train in January while trying to break up a fight between passengers over loud music.

“It just feels bad,” she told The Post.

The most recent violent death on the subway occurred shortly after 11 p.m. on Sept. 5, when a gunman shot and killed 47-year-old grocer Freddie Weston near the MetroCard counter at the Rockaway Avenue station in Brooklyn, police and his family said.

If there had been cameras near the station's ticket counter, Weston, 47, who was on his way to work in College Point, might still be alive, his sister Tina told The Post.

“They took the opportunity because there was no [any] Camera,” she said in a shaky voice.

The rise in the murder rate continues despite a series of initiatives that curbed a rise in underground crime earlier this year. 750 National Guard troops were deployed to busy subway stations, while an additional 1,000 NYPD officers were deployed to monitor the subway system.

According to an NYPD spokesperson, overall subway crime is down nearly 6% this year compared to the same period in 2023, with robberies down about 18% and aggravated assaults down nearly 5%.

“This overall drop in crime is largely due to the thorough investigations by detectives of every major crime on the subway and the proactive work of officers deployed throughout the transit system,” the spokesperson said. “This year alone, those same officers have seized 43 firearms (compared to 28 last year) and 1,536 knives (compared to 1,004 last year) from the subway system. That's the highest gun seizure rate in the last decade.”

However, violent crime is still well above pre-pandemic levels, and passengers are still worried about whether they will take their next ride on the Murder Express.

“You don’t know if you’ll make it home,” complained 68-year-old retiree Vickie Reeves during one of her rare subway rides at Times Square Station.

“There are many mental illnesses and it hurts your heart when you don't know who you're coming into contact with, whether they're going to push you under a train.”

Joseph Giacalone, an associate professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, attributed the persistent murder rate to a combination of “overstretched” police personnel and an exodus of experienced traffic officers due to resignations or retirements.

“You can't just let anyone patrol the subway – that's a different matter,” he said.

Dockery and her daughter would no longer use the subway, she said.

Today, she drives a 2025 Lexus NX 350 to get around town, run errands, and drop off and pick up her teenager from high school basketball games.

“I'm not doing the MTA,” she said. “Between the anger [of violent straphangers]Mentally ill people, I can’t do that.”