In the wake of a fatal subway shooting in Midtown over the weekend, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman rode the rails Monday, turning the killing into a campaign issue against his opponent, Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Hochul’s team hit back, pointing to state taxpayer dollars she’s put towards NYPD overtime in the mass-transit system.
Blakeman commuted from his Long Island home to the scene of the shooting at the Seventh Avenue station near West 53rd Street. He pointed the finger at his opponent and accused her of cutting cops from the platforms.
“Kathy Hochul doesn’t care. She hasn’t tried. She’s pro-criminal. She doesn’t care about the families and the victims, and she’s demonstrated that time and time again,” Blakeman said. “Put more police officers on the subway — number one. Number two, we’ve got to improve the lighting there. Number three, we’ve got to have more conductors on the trains.”
The governor’s campaign team responded, pointing to two years worth of Hochul backed-millions in state tax dollars dedicated to NYPD overtime and overnight patrols for the system.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani quickly came to his ally’s defense in the Bronx at a separate press conference.
“He is looking to exploit any fear that a New Yorker may have at any time for his political benefit. We’re talking about a governor who has been so committed to the city of New York than so many of her predecessors,” he said of Hochul.
The broad daylight attack at the 53rd Street and Seventh Avenue stop began as an argument between two men and ended in the death of a 26-year-old man, according to police. The suspect has yet to be caught.
Comparing the post-pandemic years, NYPD officials have touted dips in overall crime, including on the subway. But there’s been seven deaths recorded in the system this year alone — compared to four last year.
Hochul defended her investments weeks ago in September.
“We are so concerned about driving down crime on the subway that the state will actually put in money to supplement a local government’s overtime on this important asset and the results have been extraordinary,” she said, adding that it’s led to “historic lows crime rates on the subway.”
Blakeman says riders still don’t feel safe.
“Maybe if a police officer was there, they would’ve been able to stop it or maybe the person got discouraged because of the police presence. So I think there’s a lot of material things we can do to make it safer here in New York,” he told reporters.
When Hochul ran for her first full term in 2022, then-GOP candidate Lee Zeldin’s campaign slammed Democrats for what he described as Hochul’s inattention to spiking crime.
He lost by six percentage points.
“Governor Hochul took office with crime spiking and the subways deserted, invested a record $4 billion in policing, put boots on the ground in our subways, and brought subway crime to its lowest level,” Hochul campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chikita said in a statement.