12
COURIER LIFE, APRIL 22-28, 2022
Honoring heroes
Mayor lauds lifesaving transit workers
for actions during Sunset Park attack
BY BEN BRACHFELD
The heroic transit workers
whose actions likely
saved countless New Yorkers
during the Sunset Park
subway attack were officially
honored on April
15, with the city bestowing
proclamations declaring
the day in their honor.
Mayor Eric Adams, still
in quarantine after his COVID
19 diagnosis, remotely
honored the seven valorous
MTA workers whose
quick thinking enabled
passengers caught in the
crossfire of the attack to
hastily evacuate the situation,
preventing any casualties
in an attack that
easily could have been far
worse than it already was.
A gunman, identified
by police and prosecutors
as 62-year-old Frank R.
James, detonated smoke
grenades and opened fire
on a Manhattan-bound
N train on April 12 as it
pulled into the 36th Street
station. The gunman fired
33 shots in all before his
gun reportedly jammed; 10
people sustained gunshot
wounds and about 20 more
sustained other injuries.
In the heat of the moment,
the conductors and
operators on the N train
and an R train across the
platform scuttled frightened
straphangers onto the
R train, pulling out of the
station before any more
carnage could be wrought.
Once the train reached the
next stop, 25th Street, a B37
bus shuttled passengers
further out of harm’s way.
“New Yorkers looked
out for each other, and
transit workers, as always,
looked out for us,” Adams
said at a ceremony in honor
of the heroes. “When our
city was attacked Tuesday
morning, you risked real
danger to save the lives of
everyday New Yorkers.”
Honorees included
R train operator Joseph
Franchi, R train conductor
Dayron Williams, N
Some of the heroic transit workers honored for their valor in the
Sunset Park subway attack pose with their city proclamations.
Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
train operator David Artis,
N train conductor Raven
Haynes, R train operator
Michael Catalano, R train
conductor Willy Sanchez,
and B37 bus operator Parla
Mejia.
“When bullets were
flying, 33 to be exact, you
stayed calm, stayed focused,
and you saved lives,”
Hizzoner said. “Thanks to
you, no passenger was left
behind, no lives were lost.
And thanks to you, our city
keeps running every day,
day after day.”
Artis in particular was
singled out for his heroism.
The operator of the
besieged N train, he was
the first person to alert the
outside world of the attack,
radioing the MTA’s control
center of the situation
and notifying cops, he told
the Daily News. When the
train pulled into the station
he began directing riders
onto the R train on the
opposite track.
“This was an active
shooter situation. And
conductors and train operators
were taking charge
once again, doing what was
necessary to get riders out
of danger,” said TWU Local
100 Secretary-Treasurer
Earl Phillips. “At any
given minute, they were either
directing passengers,
making announcements,
moving their trains, taking
police into the tunnels
to look for the shooter, communicating
with the rail
control center and emergency
responders. Our bus
operators meanwhile filled
the void, packing up riders
along the N line, including
those rushing out of the
36th Street station.”
Speaking with reporters
outside City Hall,
Haynes, the other crew
member on the N train,
said that the calm, likeclockwork
heroism of the
subway workers was simply
a means of preventing
the situation from deteriorating
further.
James, the alleged
perpetrator, most likely
slipped onto the evacuating
R train with other
passengers, as he was captured
on CCTV walking
out of the 25th Street station
minutes later, dressed
in all black after evidently
dropping his construction
worker disguise.
James was finally apprehended
on April 13. He
was arraigned in federal
court April 14 on terrorism
charges and is being held
without bail at the Metropolitan
Detention Center
in Sunset Park, just blocks
from the site of the attack.
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Learn more at nyp.org/orthopedics
T:10.85"
/orthopedics