Mayor Eric Adams on Friday blamed the shocking rush-hour shooting onboard a Brooklyn subway car on an agitator suffering from “severe mental health” issues, as he pushed for legislation that would allow police to institutionalize mentally unstable people.
Adams claimed the 36-year-old aggressor, identified as Dajuan Robinson, was not “in the proper frame of mind” when he was filmed brawling with another man and was shot by his own gun onboard an A train as it pulled into the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street station Thursday night.
“When I looked at this tape and broke it down piece by piece and frame by frame, it is clear that it personifies what our pursuit is involved around those with severe mental health illnesses,” he told NY1.
“And as the investigation unfolds, we’re going to see the nexus between the actions that took place there and the many of the random acts of violence that just unnerves New Yorkers.”
He went on to call the suspect one of “far too many people suffering severe mental health” problems in later remarks on PIX 11.
In fact, half of the nearly 40 perps busted for attacking MTA employees in the subway system last year had histories of mental illness.
Of the 38 people charged with 41 separate assaults on train drivers, conductors, token booth clerks and other underground workers, 20 of them had at least five arrests to their names and documented psychological problems, a Post investigation found.
Even the woman who made headlines earlier this month when she was accused of whacking a cello performer over the head with a bottle was institutionalized several times, Adams said in his NY1 appearance.
There are “some real, severe mental health illnesses” driving these acts of violence that are making New Yorkers feel increasingly less safe on the transit system, he said.
A step-by-step breakdown of what happened in the Brooklyn subway shooting
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Adams has been pushing for a bill in Albany to make it easier to admit mentally ill people to the hospital.
The legislation, sponsored by Assemblyman Ed Braunstein (D-Queens), would allow more types of medical professionals like psychiatric nurse practitioners and social workers to require someone be involuntarily admitted.
The bill was introduced after Albany’s legislative session ended last year, but hasn’t moved at all since lawmakers returned in January.
Adams has also been pressuring state lawmakers to expand Kendra’s Law, which allows the court system to force people with mental illness who are “unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision” to get outpatient assistance.
“We need to give law enforcement the help they need,” Adams said on NY1.
In the latest incident Thursday night, two strangers were filmed tussling for several minutes as onlookers pleaded for them to stop.
“I’ll beat you up,” the 36-year-old agitator could be seen telling a 32-year-old man.
“You think you’re gonna beat up cops?” he growled.
A woman off-camera chimed in that the aggressor seemed to think the other man was a migrant, apparently referencing the migrant mob caught on camera pounding on a pair of cops near Times Square in January.
“F–k your kind. F–k your race. F–k you,” the instigator then shouted at the other man, before hurling threats at him and egging him on to defend himself.
The 32-year-old originally tried to ignore the taunts, but eventually jumped out of his seat at the back of his car and raised his fist — prompting the aggressor to yell, “Let’s get it.”
At that point, commuters who had been trying to ignore the violent ramblings could be seen jumping out of their seats and trying to move away from the men as they fought.
But one woman eventually could be seen trying to intervene, allegedly stabbing the agitator’s back — which only caused him to turn his ire on her.
He then pulled out a gun and started running toward the 32-year-old straphanger.
The video cut off at that point, but at least four gunshots were heard when the train pulled into the Brooklyn station, which houses the NYPD’s 30th Transit Precinct, and the 32-year-old was arrested.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, however, said later Friday that he would not be facing charges, as he was acting in self-defense.
“Yesterday’s shooting inside a crowded subway car was shocking and deeply upsetting,’’ said Oren Yaniv, a spokesman for the DA’s Office, in an e-mailed statement.
Police are searching for the young woman seen in the video stabbing the agitator. She was said to be riding with the 32-year-old he was fighting but fled after the brawl.
