A man was shot in the head at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station in Downtown Brooklyn on Thursday evening, the authorities said.
A fight broke out on a moving train as it was approaching the station, Lincoln Restler, the City Council member who represents the area, said. One man had a gun. The other man somehow got hold of the gun and shot the man who had brought it onto the train, said Mr. Restler, who said he had been briefed by the police at the scene.
The police responded to the shooting just before 5 p.m., at the height of the evening rush hour. It was unclear whether the man who was shot had a relationship with the assailant, and a motive for the attack was under investigation, a spokesman for the Police Department said. The victim was transported to a nearby hospital in critical condition, Mr. Restler said.
“This is a horrible tragedy,” Mr. Restler said. “I know it’s unnerving for the four million people who ride the subway every day when a terrible, violent incident like this occurs.”
A person of interest was in custody by 5:20 p.m., the police said, and a firearm was recovered, Mayor Eric Adams’s office said on X. The station, which is serviced by the A, C and G trains, contains a police outpost, Transit District 30. While the police investigation continued, all trains bypassed Hoyt-Schermerhorn and the police advised the public to avoid the station.
As the evening wore on, police tape was strung across the turnstiles as two officers watched over the station’s entrance. A train sat empty at the platform with its doors open as commuters filed back upstairs to catch buses to their destinations.
The shooting occurred as the safety of the New York City subway system has been under intense scrutiny. Last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed the National Guard to check riders’ bags in an effort to deter crime and, she said, ease New Yorkers’ fears about the system.
Ms. Hochul sent 750 members of the New York National Guard and an additional 250 personnel from the State Police and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority into the transit system in response to a recent spate of violent incidents.
Surveys by the M.T.A., which operates the subway, consistently show that a number of riders perceive the system as dangerous, but data has not always confirmed the public’s perception. There has not been a significant increase in crime in the system, and the likelihood of being a victim of a violent crime is remote.
In mid-2022, there was about one violent crime per one million rides on the subway, according to a New York Times analysis. Since then, the overall crime rate has fallen and ridership has increased.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Ana Ley, Sean Piccoli and Chelsia Rose Marcius contributed reporting.
