A 25-year-old man with a lengthy rap sheet was charged with second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon on Tuesday in connection with the unprovoked fatal shooting of a man on the New York City subway.
Andrew Abdullah turned himself in more than 48 hours after the shooting that occurred on the Q train around 11:40 a.m. on Sunday, according to the New York Times.
“Today, the manhunt for Andrew Abdullah is over,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said, according to Fox News. “Less than three hours after the NYPD released his photograph to the public, Mr. Abdullah knew he had nowhere left to run.”
Daniel Enriquez, 48, was headed to brunch when he was shot and killed by a stranger on the subway.
“According to witnesses, the suspect was walking back and forth in the same train car and, without provocation, pulled out a gun and fired at the victim at close range as the trains [were] crossing the Manhattan Bridge,” NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said at a briefing earlier this week.
Police sought Abdullah — who has previously been arrested for criminal possession of a weapon, assault, robbery, menacing and grand larceny — in connection with the case.
Do you know where Andrew Abdullah is? He's wanted for shooting a fellow New Yorker in the chest on Sunday, May 22nd, causing the victim's death, while on a "Q" train in Manhattan.
If you have ANY information on Andrew, contact @NYPDTips at 800-577-TIPS. pic.twitter.com/NAKrsRHDMM
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) May 24, 2022
Abdullah was one of dozens of gang members from the Fast Money and Nine Block gangs who were charged by Manhattan prosecutors in 2017 for engaging in a “bloody feud” with rivals. Thirteen of the gang members were charged with 83 crimes including second-degree murder, attempted murder, several conspiracy charges and weapons charges.
He pleaded guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon and other charges in 2018 and was sentenced to prison the next year. He was paroled later that year, according to State Department of Corrections records obtained by the New York Times.
Abdullah was hit with new gun charges in January 2020, according to the report. The case involving those charges is still pending. He was charged in March 2021 with assault and endangering the welfare of a child. That case is also still pending.
Most recently, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office charged Abdullah with stolen property and unauthorized use of a vehicle in April, the New York Times reported.
The shooting came more than a month after 62-year-old Frank James allegedly opened fire on a Brooklyn subway, leaving nearly two dozen people injured, including ten who suffered gunshot wounds.
Enriquez’s sister, Griselda Vile, told Fox News that “if you take the pulse of the city, everyone is afraid.”
“I’m only meeting with the press because I’m pleading that this not happen to another New Yorker, that it does not happen to another family,” she said.
“I don’t want my brother just to be a passing name in the media, a passing name in our normalcy, post-pandemic,” she added.