Following the announcement of a homicide, the cause of which is still to be determined, aboard the D train at 182nd-183rd Street Subway Station in Fordham Heights on Friday morning, Feb. 23, riders of the D train shared their views on subway safety in general with Norwood News.

 

As reported, the NYPD had been asking for the public’s help identifying the three people seen in the attached video and photos who they said were sought in connection to the incident that took place at around 5 a.m. on Friday morning.

 

[As later reported, pursuant to an ongoing investigation, police said on Sunday, Feb. 25, that Justin Herde, 24, Betty Cotto, 38, and Alfredo Trinidad, 42, were identified as the three sought in connection with the incident. On Monday, they said Herde of East 205th Street in Bedford Park, Cotto, of nearby Villa Avenue, also in Bedford Park, and Trinidad, of the same Villa Avenue address in Bedford Park, were each charged with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon. They are presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.]

 

The incident comes on the back of a mass shooting on the 4 line around rush hour at nearby Mt. Eden subway station earlier this month.

THE NYPD IS asking for the public’s help identifying the persons seen in this video who they say are wanted for questioning in connection with a homicide that occurred aboard the D train at 182nd-183rd Street in Fordham Heights on Friday morning, Feb. 23, 2024. Video courtesy of the NYPD

We spoke to a young local subway rider, Ace, estimated to be in his 20s, on the subway platform at 182nd-183rd Street subway station serving the D train on Friday and asked if he often rode the train. “Yeah. I literally live across the street,” he said. Asked how he felt about the fact that someone was killed on his usual subway line, Ace said, “Shocking, very shocking. It’s like…I don’t necessarily feel like the trains are more dangerous. It’s just you have to be more aware of your surroundings anywhere in New York City and I guess in more urban cities now, where crime is rampant. People turn to violence…. that’s the first thing…”

 

Asked what time of day he took the train, Ace replied, “I catch the train everyday. Sometimes, I’m coming home late night. I’m coming home one o’clock, two o’clock in the morning.” Asked if he ever felt reluctant to take the subway late at night, he said, “No.” In reference to the latest homicide, he said, “It says that they got into argument. I don’t get into arguments on the train.” Asked if he kept his earphones in or out riding the subway, he said, “I mean I keep them in but like you can be alert. Like you’re gonna hear things. You’re gonna see what’s going on, you know, if it’s a rowdy crowd.”

He continued, “I mean I guess it’s kind of like a common sense thing. Like you either get on other cars, you don’t interact with those guys, and if you do…..it’s like…. I don’t see a lot of people….like there’s not like a lot of bullying on trains, not like people are like coming for you. It’s never like on the offense. It’s more like people get into arguments. It’s between them. Like this was an isolated thing. They didn’t know each other. It was just boom – it happened.”

 

Ace said he didn’t think the latest incident was going to deter anybody from riding the subway. “Because it’s right here where the crime scene happened and people get on the train. It’s everyday life, but you just got to be more aware of your surroundings and don’t like, you know?” He recommended always trying to de-escalate situations, but added, “Never underestimate the next person.”

We also spoke to William Ventura, who is estimated to be in his 40s or 50s on the same platform at the same station. Asked if he felt safe riding the subway, he said, “We have no choice. We have to live our lives, you know, living scared all the time, but it’s definitely getting worse. The last few years are getting worse. I’m not gonna get into politics or names but it’s getting worse.”

 

Asked what time he usually rode the train, he said in the afternoon around three o’clock but not in the morning. Asked if he would like to see more police presence on the subways, Ventura said, “I’ve seen more of them now. But still, they don’t even want to get involved because government I think, have taken the power away from them.”

For clarity, we asked Ventura if, in his opinion, cops were hesitant to intervene in certain situations. “Yeah,” he said. “The city, the government, they don’t give them the power they had before to make people go with [comply with] the law. So at one point, they just get a paycheck.”

 

Later we also spoke to a young woman called Laura also on the same platform, who said she was a mom to a new baby. “I just feel like the train’s not safe, the street’s not safe so I don’t know what else to do,” she said. Asked if she had ever encountered any specific safety issues aboard the train, Laura said, “No, thank the Lord, right?” Asked what time of the day she usually took the train, she said in the afternoon. “I don’t take it past a certain time because I know I’d be scared,” she said.

We asked Laura if she ever took the train early like around 5 a.m. when the latest homicide occurred. She said, “No.” We then asked if she tended not to take the subway after a certain time and she said yes. “Probably like, [not after] ten o’clock is like the most. After that time, no.”

 

We also asked Laura if she had to go somewhere after that time if she would take an Uber and she said, “Yes. I do that all the time. I don’t even bring my daughter [on the subway].” She added that her daughter was six months old. “I don’t let her take the train,” she said. We then asked if that was always or just at certain times of the day. She said she never took her child on the subway.

Asked if there was anything else she wanted to say on the topic of safety or police presence on the subways, the young mom said, “They [police] do take a little while to come to the scene so I feel like maybe they should have a new system or something to make the subways safe for us.”

 

We then asked Laura for her thoughts on the new “How Many Stops?” law which police say requires cops to fill in more paperwork, allegedly leaving them less time to carry out more serious police work. She replied, “I feel like New York has a lot of police officers so it’s just like, there’s no excuse. You can’t just give an excuse, saying that paperwork this, paperwork that.”

 

Transit and other major crime statistics for the last 28-day period in the 46th Precinct and Bronx-wide as of Feb. 18, as well as year-to-date crimes as of Feb. 18 in the 46th Precinct and Bronx-wide, compared to the same time last year, are attached. The 46th Precinct, where the latest homicide occurred, covers some or all of the neighborhoods of Fordham, University Heights, Morris Heights and Mt. Hope.

 

To read feedback from the MTA, the NYPD and some local elected officials on the latest subway killing, click here,

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on Twitter @NYPDTips.

All calls are strictly confidential.