{"id":133584,"date":"2026-02-14T16:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T16:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/133584\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T16:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T16:36:08","slug":"major-transit-crimes-surge-17-in-first-two-months-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/133584\/","title":{"rendered":"Major transit crimes surge 17% in first two months of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The city marked the year\u2019s first fatal shooting in the subway<\/a> this\u00a0week\u00a0as\u00a0new\u00a0NYPD stats show that crime in the city\u2019s transit system is spiking, leaving fearful straphangers clamoring for more cops underground.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Major crime, such as murder and rape, on subways and buses surged 17%, to 246 so far this year from 210 in the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n

Robbery skyrocketed 58%, to 60 from 38, and assaults\u00a0spiked 9%<\/a>, to 71\u00a0from 65, according to NYPD data through Feb. 8. <\/p>\n

Police are looking for Alberto Frias, 27, for questioning in the fatal shooting in a Bronx subway station. DCPI<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got a lot of people walking around here with mental health issues and controlled substances,\u201d said Michael Ford, a 74-year-old Manhattan retiree at the Times Square station.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s not good because I take the subways a lot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The septuagenarian blamed increased crime on drugs and homelessness,\u00a0and called on Mayor Mamdani to pump up the police presence underground.<\/p>\n

An NYPD spokesperson pointed out that the 17% increase so far this year amounts to merely 36 incidents or about six index crimes each day. The NYPD also blamed the frigid cold of early February.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it is cold, especially this cold, more people move into the transit system,\u201d an NYPD spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani said he was pausing subway ejections during the city\u2019s recent cold snap. At the same time, the NYPD added about 100 cops a day to the system to address the slight uptick, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Adrian Dawodu, 41, was fatally shot on a Bronx subway platform. Kyle Mazza\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, six weeks is a statistically short time frame to allege any type of broad trend,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Last year, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, with Mayor Adams, implemented a strategy to flood trains and platforms<\/a> with cops, including two officers on every overnight train.<\/p>\n

And by mid-2025, subway crime was at record lows compared to prior non-pandemic years.\u00a0By the end of 2025, the city\u2019s transit system was on track for its safest year <\/a>in a generation, with major crimes per millionriders dropping roughly 30%<\/a> since 2021.<\/p>\n

The fatal shooting was the first murder in the city\u2019s transit system in 2026.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s first underground murder happened on Tuesday when a 41-year-old man was shot on a Bronx subway platform after an argument with the gunman, cops said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adrian Dawodu was shot once in the thigh and once in the groin just before 3 p.m. on the southbound platform of the 170th Street B and D station, police said.<\/p>\n

The victim, who was a regular at the station, was known for \u201cyelling and screaming at people,\u201d NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.<\/p>\n

Dawoda was shot and killed at the Grand Concourse station when a dispute on the train spilled out onto the platform.<\/p>\n

A terrifying video posted to social media captured the shooter firing his gun and striking the victim, causing him to slump to the ground next to a trash\u00a0can. <\/p>\n

Police identified 27-year-old Alberto Frias as a suspect after finding video that showed him fleeing the subway and going to his home nearby.<\/p>\n

Detectives found a bullet casing on his bedroom floor and believe it fell out of his bloody clothing when he changed, Kenny said. They are looking for him.<\/p>\n

Frias seen in another photo. DCPI<\/p>\n

Blake Hammond, a 21-year-old student and cancer researcher at Columbia University, said his sister takes the subway regularly and is frightened.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt scares my sister really bad,\u201d he said. \u201cShe wants more police on the subway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elizabeth McDermott, a 55-year-old grandmother of two, blamed \u201cthe mentally ill people that are in the subway system.\u201d<\/p>\n

NYPD data shows a crime surge in the city\u2019s transit system so far this year. NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cBellevue has to come and get their patients,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kelly Smith, a 66-year-old stylist from New Jersey, called her daily commute on the subway \u201cscary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely more vigilant than I\u2019ve ever been,\u201d she said while in the Times Square subway station. \u201cThe politics in New York doesn\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city marked the year\u2019s first fatal shooting in the subway this\u00a0week\u00a0as\u00a0new\u00a0NYPD stats show that crime in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[303,57,238,9,24,55,54,56,103,1687,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-133584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-murders","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-city-news","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nypd","17":"tag-subways","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}