U.S.! theft, robbery, New York City subway, murder, attempted murder, New Orleans terror attack 2024.12.31-2025.1.2

FBI says driver responsible for deadly New Orleans rampage acted alone
The FBI also says it has not found a connection with the explosion of a Cybertruck in Las Vegas
Published January 2, 2025 • Updated on January 2, 2025 at 8:42 pm

The U.S. Army veteran who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans acted alone, the FBI said Thursday, reversing its position from a day earlier that he likely worked with others in the deadly attack that officials said was inspired by the Islamic State group.

The FBI also revealed that the driver, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an American citizen from Texas, posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he proclaimed his support for the militant group and previewed the violence that he would soon unleash in the famed French Quarter district.

“This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act,” said Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, calling Jabbar “100% inspired” by the Islamic State.

The attack killed 14 revelers, along with Jabbar, 42, who was fatally shot in a firefight with police after steering his speeding truck around a barricade and plowing into the crowd. About 30 people were injured.

It was the deadliest IS-inspired assault on U.S. soil in years, laying bare what federal officials have warned is a resurgent international terrorism threat. It also comes as the FBI and other agencies brace for dramatic leadership upheaval — and likely policy changes — after President-elect Donald Trump’s administration takes office.

Raia stressed that there was no indication of a connection between the New Orleans attack and the explosion Wednesday of a Tesla Cybertruck filled with explosives outside Trump’s Las Vegas hotel. The person inside that truck, a decorated U.S. Army Green Beret, shot himself in the head just before detonation, authorities said.

The FBI continued to hunt for clues about Jabbar but said that a day into its investigation, it was confident he was not aided by anyone else in the attack, which killed an 18-year-old aspiring nurse, a single mother, a father of two and a former Princeton University football star, among others.

The attack plans also included the placement of crude bombs in the neighborhood in an apparent attempt to cause more carnage, officials said. Two improvised explosive devices left in coolers several blocks apart were rendered safe at the scene. Other devices were determined to be nonfunctional.

Officials reviewed surveillance video showing people standing near one of the coolers but concluded that they were not connected “in any way” with the attack, though investigators still want to speak with them as witnesses, Raia said.

At the press conference, Raia provided a timeline of the attack and additional information about the videos.

Investigators believe Jabbar picked up the rented Ford F-150 truck in Houston on Dec. 30, then drove from Houston to New Orleans the evening of Dec. 31. He posted several videos on an online platform “proclaiming his support for ISIS,” Raia said. In the first of five videos that he posted on his Facebook account, with time-stamps starting at 1:29 a.m. and ending at 3:02 a.m., he said he “originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the ‘war between the believers and the disbelievers,’” Raia said.

Jabbar also stated that he joined IS before last summer, and he provided a last will and testament, the FBI said.

The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into a macabre scene of maimed victims, bloodied bodies and pedestrians fleeing for safety inside nightclubs and restaurants. In addition to the dead, dozens of people were hurt.

Zion Parsons, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi, said he saw the truck “barreling through, throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air.”

“Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering,” said Parsons, whose friend Nikyra Dedeaux was among the people killed.

“This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.

The driver “defeated” safety measures in place to protect pedestrians, Kirkpatrick said, and was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”

Jabbar drove the rented pickup truck onto a sidewalk, going around a police car that was positioned to block vehicular traffic, authorities said. A barrier system meant to prevent vehicle attacks was being repaired in preparation for the Super Bowl in February.

Jabbar was killed by police after he exited the truck and opened fire on responding officers, Kirkpatrick said. Three officers returned fire. Two were shot and are in stable condition.

Investigators recovered a handgun and AR-style rifle, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Investigators also found three cellphones linked to Jabbar and two laptops at home in nearby Mandeville, that is believed to be potentially connected to the Bourbon Street attack.

“Digital media exploitation is a priority to see what is on the devices and determine if there are any other potential leads,” Raia said.

A photo circulated among law enforcement officials showed a bearded Jabbar wearing camouflage next to the truck after he was killed. The flag of the Islamic State group was on the truck’s trailer hitch, the FBI said.

“For those people who don’t believe in objective evil, all you have to do is look at what happened in our city early this morning,” U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said. “If this doesn’t trigger the gag reflex of every American, every fair-minded American, I’ll be very surprised.”

Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.

A U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly, said Jabbar traveled to Egypt in 2023, staying in Cairo for a week, before returning to the U.S. and then traveling to Toronto for three days. It was not immediately clear what he did during those travels.

Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, Jabbar’s younger brother, told The Associated Press on Thursday that it “doesn’t feel real” that his brother could have done this.

“I never would have thought it’d be him,” he said. “It’s completely unlike him.”

He said that his brother had been isolated in the last few years, but that he had also been in touch with him and he didn’t see any signs of radicalization.

“It’s completely contradictory to who he was and how his family and his friends know him,” he said.

Chris Pousson, 42, of Beaumont, Texas, said he became friends with Shamsud-Din Jabbar in middle school, describing him as someone who was quiet and reserved and did not get into trouble.

After high school, he said, they reconnected on Facebook around 2008 or 2009 and would message back and forth throughout the next decade.

“If any red flags would have popped off, I would have caught them, and I would have contacted the proper authorities,” he said. “But he didn’t give anything to me that would have suggested that he is capable of doing what happened.”

Hours after the attack, several coroner’s office vans were parked on the corner of Bourbon and Canal streets, cordoned off by police tape with crowds of dazed tourists standing around, some trying to navigate their luggage through the labyrinth of blockades.

“We looked out our front door and saw caution tape and dead silence and it’s eerie,” said Tessa Cundiff, an Indiana native who moved to the French Quarter a few years ago. “This is not what we fell in love with, it’s sad.”

President Joe Biden, speaking from the presidential retreat at Camp David, addressed the victims and the people of New Orleans: “I want you to know I grieve with you. Our nation grieves with you as you mourn and as you heal.”

“My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday,” Biden said in an earlier written statement. “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”

In New Orleans on Thursday, a still-reeling city inched back toward normal operations. Authorities finished processing the scene early in the morning, removing the last of the bodies, and Bourbon Street — famous worldwide for music, open-air drinking and festive vibes — reopened for business by early afternoon.

The Sugar Bowl college football game between Notre Dame and Georgia, initially set for Wednesday night and postponed by a day in the interest of national security, was played Thursday evening. The city also planned to host the Super Bowl next month.

New Orleans “is not only ready for game day today, but we’re ready to continue to host large-scale events in our city because we are built to host at every single turn,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said.

—

New Orleans truck attacker identified as Army veteran from Texas who declared support for ISIS, officials say
Updated on: January 2, 2025 / 3:38 PM EST / CBS News

The man responsible for a deadly truck attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S.-born citizen from Texas, the FBI said. He was a U.S. Army veteran who lived in Houston. The FBI said he posted several videos before the attack proclaiming his support for ISIS.

Officials say at least 14 people were killed and dozens injured when the attacker drove around barricades and hurtled down Bourbon Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter as New Year’s revelers were celebrating early on Wednesday. The FBI initially said that 15 people, excluding the driver, died in the attack. The number was revised by the New Orleans coroner’s office on Thursday to say that the figure included the attacker.

New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick described the attack as “very intentional behavior.”

“He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” Kirkpatrick said.

The FBI said it is investigating the incident “as an act of terrorism.” Officials initially said they were investigating the possibility others may have been involved, but on Thursday the FBI said there do not appear to have been any accomplices.

“We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack other than Shamsud-Din Jabbar,” deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division Christopher Raia said at a briefing Thursday.

He also said Jabbar stated in a post on Facebook that he had joined ISIS last summer. Shortly before the attack, “He posted several videos to an online platform proclaiming his support for ISIS,” Raia said.

The House Homeland Security Committee and other members of Congress received an FBI briefing on the investigation Thursday. The FBI confirmed that to date, the agency has not found any evidence that Jabbar had any co-conspirators or was directed by a foreign actor or terrorist organization, but said the attack was inspired by ISIS, a committee aide told CBS News.

Jabbar was not on any federal government watchlists, the aide said.

What happened on Bourbon Street in New Orleans?
The attacker drove a pickup truck into a crowd at about 3:15 a.m., killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens of others, officials said. He then exited the vehicle — a Ford pickup he rented via the Turo carsharing app in Texas — and fired upon local law enforcement, the FBI said. Two law enforcement officers were wounded and transported to a local hospital. They were released from the hospital Thursday.

The attacker was struck by police fire and declared dead at the scene, the New Orleans Police Department said.

“This man was trying to run over as many people as he could,” said Kirkpatrick, adding that the two police officers who were hit by gunfire were in a stable condition.

Officials said Jabbar bypassed barriers put in place on Bourbon Street instead of security bollards during the attack. New Orleans was replacing bollards on the street and near completion before the upcoming Super Bowl, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said.

Kirkpatrick said Jabbar drove around the barriers, bypassing patrol cars and law enforcement, and onto the sidewalk.

“We had a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there, and he still got around,” Kirkpatrick said.

An ISIS flag was found on the trailer hitch of the vehicle, the FBI said.

Raia said it’s not clear why Jabbar chose to attack Bourbon Street.

The deceased attacker was wearing body armor, two sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News. A long gun “with a suppressive device” on it that acted as a silencer was recovered from the scene, law enforcement sources said. Two law enforcement sources told CBS News that the suspect had an AR-15 style weapon and a handgun with him at the time of the attack.

Raia said Thursday that two improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, were found in the French Quarter. Both devices were active and were found in coolers near intersections in the area. Both were “rendered safe” where they were found, he said. A person familiar with the investigation told CBS News that the devices were rudimentary pipe bombs that contained shrapnel including nails, screws and tacks.

Surveillance footage showed Jabbar placing the devices where they were found, Raia said. Raia said that investigators found two other items of interest that were determined not to be IEDs; he said there have been reports of other devices, but said those reports were incorrect or were for non-functioning devices.

“We do not believe the public is in any danger around any of these locations,” Raia said.

Investigators from the FBI, Homeland Security and bomb squad have also been on the scene at an Airbnb in the St. Roch area of New Orleans, where officials tell CBS News the suspect was staying while in New Orleans. That building caught fire on Wednesday and the investigation into that fire is ongoing.

Three cellphones and two laptops have been recovered, Raia said. Investigators are still examining those devices.

What we know about the Bourbon Street attacker
According to records obtained by CBS News, Jabbar was a resident of Houston who previously served in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves. The FBI said Thursday that it had conducted a “court-authorized search” at his home in Houston and cleared the area, and said there was no threat to residents.

Jabbar rented a Ford electric pickup truck in Houston from the peer-to-peer rental app Turo, which he picked up on Dec. 30, 2024, and drove to New Orleans on Dec. 31, Raia said.

Before the attack, Raia said, Jabbar posted multiple videos to social media where he declared his support for ISIS.

In one of those videos, he said he had planned to attack family and friends, but “was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the quote, ‘war between the believers and the disbelievers,’ end quote,” Raia said.

In a 2020 YouTube video that appears to have been posted by Jabbar, he said he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and described himself as a real estate agent. The video was removed from YouTube on Wednesday afternoon.

A spokesperson for Georgia State University told CBS News that Jabbar attended the university from 2015 to 2017 and graduated with a B.B.A. in Computer Information Systems.

He had a hunting and fishing license and appears to have had a real estate license that expired in 2023, according to Texas Real Estate Commission Records.

He also had prior brushes with the law, including theft and driving without a license. Court records show Jabbar was charged with infractions including a misdemeanor theft charge in 2002 and driving with an invalid license in 2005.

A Navy spokesperson confirmed to CBS News that Jabbar enlisted on Aug. 12, 2004, in the Navy Recruiting District Houston and was discharged from the Delayed Entry Program one month later.

He then served in the U.S. Army from March 2007 until January 2015 as a human resource specialist and information technology specialist, an Army spokesperson confirmed to CBS News. Jabbar was deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010. He received a number of awards while serving, including four Army Achievement Medals, a National Defense Service Medal, a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and two Army Good Conduct Medals, along with several others, according to the Army.

After Jabbar finished active military duty he was an information technology specialist in the Army Reserves from 2015 until 2020. He ended his service with the rank of staff sergeant, the Army said.

Jabbar was married three times, according to court records. His first marriage ended in 2012, with his ex-wife gaining custody of their two children. Jabbar was ordered to pay child support. He married again in 2013, then filed for divorce in 2016. He married his third wife in 2017, and the couple divorced in 2022.

He may have been experiencing financial difficulties, court records filed as part of his third divorce show. A pay stub from 2022 shows that Jabbar was earning about $125,000 annually from his job at Deloitte. The company confirmed he had worked in “staff-level role since being hired in 2021.” Jabbar said in court filings that his monthly expenses, including child support for two children from his first marriage, exceed his income. He also disclosed more than $40,000 in credit card debt and said the real estate company he founded was losing money.

In a separate filing, his then-wife accused him of financial mismanagement, alleging that he engaged in “excessive cash withdrawals,” “unnecessary and unreasonable spending,” and the “accumulation of debt,” along with providing gifts to romantic partners.

During those divorce proceedings, Jabbar’s wife, with whom he shared one child, obtained a temporary restraining order against him, forbidding him from sending threatening messages to his wife or causing injury to their child.

Was the Bourbon Street attacker acting alone?
Early in the investigation, the FBI said it was looking into whether others were involved and asked for the public’s help to provide photos, videos or any other information connected to Jabbar. But Thursday, the FBI said it now appears no one else was involved other than Jabbar.

The FBI said the agency is working to determine the subject’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations.

A person familiar with the investigation told CBS News that as of midday Wednesday, neither ISIS nor any other foreign terror organization had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Asked earlier why investigators had suspected the involvement of others, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told “CBS Mornings”: “Well, we had some information yesterday about the placement of the IEDs and the timing of the placement of the IEDs. There was a house fire early in the morning but later than the timing of the event at 3 in the morning, and so we have good reason to believe that there were multiple people that were involved.”

President Biden said Wednesday evening that law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating whether there were any connections between the New Orleans attack and the explosion of a Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas later that morning, but “thus far there’s nothing to report.”

The FBI’s Raia said Thursday, “At this point there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas.”

In addition to their timing on New Year’s Day, both incidents involved trucks rented from the carsharing app Turo. Both involved U.S.-born military servicemen who served in Afghanistan around the same timeframe. But two U.S. officials say the military has not yet found any overlap between them at either Fort Bragg or in Afghanistan. They both served there, these officials say, but not at the same time.

In a statement, a Turo spokesperson said: “We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.”

What we know about the victims of the New Orleans attack
In addition to the fatalities, dozens of people were transported to area hospitals with injuries. Kirkpatrick said at least 35 people were hospitalized.

Details about some of the victims began to emerge in the hours after the attack.

St. Thomas More Catholic High School in Lafayette, Louisiana, confirmed that 2015 graduate Tiger Bech is one of the victims of the Bourbon Street attack. “Tiger was a 2015 graduate and standout in football, lacrosse, and track and field,” the school said. A football star, Bech, 28, attended Princeton University on scholarship and twice earned All-Ivy League honors as a return specialist, CBS Sports reported.

A University of Georgia student was injured in the attack, the school confirmed. “We have learned that a University of Georgia student was critically injured in the attack and is receiving medical treatment,” the university’s president Jere W. Morehead said on social media.

Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said two Mexican citizens are among the injured. Two Israeli citizens were also injured in the attack, according to a post from Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs on social media.

—

An Army veteran’s path to radicalization followed divorces and struggling businesses in Texas
Updated 7:34 AM GMT+8, January 3, 2025

BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) — Shamsud-Din Jabbar grew up in Texas, joined the U.S. Army and eventually settled in Houston, where he spun up a real estate business and made $120,000 a year for one of the world’s largest consulting firms.

But the 42-year-old U.S. citizen, who authorities say plowed a rented truck through New Year’s revelers in New Orleans before being shot and killed by police, also faced pressures. He finalized a third divorce in 2022, saying in filings he couldn’t pay his mortgage and his business was losing money.

On Thursday, authorities and relatives were still piecing together why Jabbar barreled through a crowd in a Ford F-150 on Bourbon Street, killing 14 revelers and injuring at least 30 others. Officials said the attack was inspired by the Islamic State group, making it one of the deadliest IS-inspired assaults on U.S. soil in years.

FBI officials said Jabbar posted five videos to his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he aligned himself with IS. Authorities also found an Islamic State flag on the truck used in the attack early Wednesday.

“It’s completely contradictory to who he was and how his family and his friends know him,” Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, one of his brothers, told The Associated Press on Thursday at his home in Beaumont, about 90 miles outside Houston.

The 24-year-old said his older brother had increasingly isolated himself from family and friends in the last few years but he hadn’t seen any signs of radicalization when they talked. He said it had been a few months since he had seen his brother in-person and a few weeks since they talked on the phone.

“Nothing about his demeanor seemed to be off. He didn’t seem to be angry or anything like that. He was just his calm, well-mannered, well-tempered self,” the younger brother said.

Law enforcement officials said after driving into the Bourbon Street crowd and crashing the truck, Jabbar exited the car wearing a ballistic vest and helmet and fired at police, injuring at least two before he was shot and killed by officers returning fire.

Army, court and other public records piece together a picture of a man who had been stationed or lived in multiple states including North Carolina, Texas, Georgia and Alaska, had been married multiple times and seemed to be experiencing financial difficulties as he tried to adjust to civilian life.

Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.

A spokesperson for Georgia State University confirmed Jabbar attended the school from 2015-2017 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems in 2017.

He had been married at least three times over the last two decades and had at least three children who were mentioned in divorce and custody agreements. His two most recent marriages, in Georgia and Texas, each lasted about three years, according to court documents.

Dwayne Marsh, who is married to one of Jabbar’s ex-wives, told The New York Times that Jabbar had been acting erratically in recent months. Marsh said he and his wife had stopped allowing the two daughters she shared with Jabbar to spend time with him.

The AP left a message at a number listed for Marsh Thursday. Messages were also left for Jabbar’s two other ex-wives at their numbers or with their attorneys.

The AP also left messages for Jabbar’s mother that were not returned as of Thursday afternoon. Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said their father had declined to speak with reporters.

Divorce records also show Jabbar faced a deteriorating financial situation in January 2022. Jabbar said he was $27,000 behind on house payments and wanted to quickly finalize the divorce.

“I have exhausted all means of bringing the loan current other than a loan modification, leaving us no alternative but to sell the house or allow it to go into foreclosure,” he wrote in a January 2022 email to his now-ex-wife’s attorney.

His businesses were struggling, too. One business, Blue Meadow Properties LLC, lost about $28,000 in 2021. Two other businesses he started, Jabbar Real Estate Holdings LLC and BDQ L3C, weren’t worth anything. He had also accumulated $16,000 in credit card debt because of expenses like attorneys fees, according to the email.

Court documents show he was making about $10,000 a month doing business development and other work for the consulting firm Deloitte in 2022.

On Wednesday, police blocked access to a Houston neighborhood where Jabbar’s last address was listed, a small white mobile home in a gated community where ducks and goats were roaming in the grass. On Thursday, the FBI said it had finished a search of the area but did not release more details.

Despite the tumult indicated by court documents, Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said his brother hadn’t shown any outward signs of distress or anger about his relationships.

“I think he blamed himself more than anything for his divorces. … And he never was bitter towards his ex-wives,” the younger Jabbar said.

Childhood friend and fellow veteran Chris Pousson reconnected with Jabbar on Facebook around 2009, before the two lost touch again around 2019. From his home in Beaumont, he said his biggest takeaway from periodic check-ins with Jabbar were positive messages and praise for his faith, but nothing that raised any flags.

“I never saw this coming. And in the military, actually, I did anti-terrorism in the military. And if any red flags would have popped off, I would have caught them and I would have contacted the proper authorities,” he said.

“But he didn’t give anything to me that would have suggested that he is capable of doing what happened.”

Victim in Subway Shoving Suffered a Broken Skull and Other Injuries
The suspect, Kamel Hawkins, has been charged with attempted murder and was arraigned on Wednesday morning. The victim, Joseph Lynskey, is suffering, his sister said.

A man who was shoved off a Manhattan subway platform and into the path of a fast-moving train not only survived, but was able to speak to his family from his hospital bed.

The man, Joseph Lynskey, 45, suffered serious injuries: a ruptured spleen, four broken ribs and a fractured skull, according to court records filed on Wednesday.

“Our main priority right now — our sole priority right now — is supporting our brother Joe,” his sister Eileen Parsons said in a phone interview. “We are so grateful that he is alive.”

His survival was a matter of inches. Mr. Lynskey was struck by the train but not head-on, according to two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the matter. He also fell next to the train, not under it, apparently saving his life, the officials said.

The person accused of attacking Mr. Lynskey on Tuesday, Kamel Hawkins, 23, was charged with attempted murder in the second degree and four counts of assault, according to a criminal complaint filed by Manhattan prosecutors.

Mr. Hawkins was arraigned in Manhattan criminal court on Wednesday morning, a spokesman for the district attorney said. A judge ordered that Mr. Hawkins be held in jail until his next court date on Jan. 6.

Mr. Lynskey, a D.J. who performs under the name Joe Usher, is also the head of content and music programming at Gray V, a company that creates background music and playlists for hotels, restaurants, gyms and retail businesses.

According to his online bio, Mr. Lynskey was born and raised in Miami, where he began “honing his sound” during the 1990s in the South Beach and Design District areas.

“After a move to Manhattan, he began an eclectic journey through some of New York’s best underground clubs,” Mr. Lynskey’s bio says. He produced soundtracks for fashion houses’ runway shows and provided music for events held by major companies and at clubs across the United States and in Brazil and Costa Rica, his bio says.

Mr. Lynskey’s online profile shows an active life, including playing tennis and hiking, attending cultural events and spending time with nieces, nephews and his dachshund, Leo. In a social media post, Mr. Lynskey named “2 of the biggest loves in life, Madonna and New York City.” He recently moved into a new apartment in Brooklyn.

Surveillance video of the attack shows Mr. Lynskey in a light orange jacket standing near the edge of the southbound platform at the 18th Street station in Chelsea. He appears to be looking down at his phone when a man in a dark coat passes behind him.

The man in the dark coat doubles back and violently shoves the victim off the platform just as the train passes through.

Hours later, on social media, Mayor Eric Adams called the incident an “appalling act of violence” that “has absolutely no place on our subway system.”

“Random acts of violence like this contribute to New Yorkers feeling unsettled,” he added.

Mr. Hawkins had a string of arrests for assault, harassment and weapons possession, according to police and court records. He has an open case in Brooklyn criminal court, where he is facing harassment and assault charges for throwing bleach on a woman and trying to kick down her door, according to a criminal complaint.

His father, Shamel Spencer, 40, who lives with Mr. Hawkins in an apartment in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, said in an interview that he was stunned by the accusations against his son.

Mr. Spencer, who went to court on Wednesday to see his child, acknowledged that Mr. Hawkins had run-ins with the law. Still, he said, he would never have expected his son to be accused of such a violent act.

“He’s not a bad kid at all,” said Mr. Spencer, who spoke somberly in the doorway of their home. Mr. Hawkins works for a moving company and is “usually focused and work-driven.”

But in recent weeks, Mr. Spencer said, he had become increasingly worried about his son’s mental health. He said Mr. Hawkins often smokes marijuana, and he wondered whether it had affected his ability to reason.

Mr. Spencer said he had been seeking help for his son. “I just know right now he’s not himself,” he said.

Surviving a shove off a New York City subway platform as a train arrives is rare. The last known person to live through a similar attack was a 42-year-old woman who was pushed at the Times Square station in 2021. She walked away with a fractured chin, a broken arm and a broken nose. The woman who shoved her was sentenced to 12 years in prison in August.

Erik Bottcher, the city councilman who represents the district where Mr. Lynskey was pushed, said they have mutual friends, but any New Yorker would feel for him.

“People who see the video say, ‘It could have been me,’ because what Joe is doing is what nearly every New Yorker does every day: simply waiting for the train.”

“Clearly the person who did this did not intend for him to survive,” Mr. Bottcher added. “It was timed to inflict death. It was calculated and timed so that it would extinguish Joe’s life.”

He said the crime should add urgency to the coming legislative session. “This is just the latest wake-up call for our leaders, about the failures in our mental health and criminal justice systems,” he said. “This clearly has to be the focus of the upcoming legislative session in Albany — the systemic failures at the intersection of criminal justice and mental health.”

NEW YORK (AP) — The woman who died after being set on fire in a New York subway train this month was a 57-year-old from New Jersey, police announced Tuesday.

The woman, Debrina Kawam, had worked at the pharmaceutical giant Merck in from 2000 until 2002, but her life at some point took a rocky turn. She had briefly been in a New York homeless shelter after moving to the city recently, the Department of Social Services said. It did not say when.

Police had an address for Kawam in Toms River, a community on the Jersey Shore, and authorities said they notified her family about her Dec. 22 death. The Associated Press left messages Tuesday for possible relatives.

“Hearts go out to the family — a horrific incident to have to live through,” Mayor Eric Adams said at an unrelated news briefing.

It came hours before another harrowing act of violence on the nation’s busiest subway system.

A 45-year-old man was pushed onto the tracks ahead of an oncoming train at a station under Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood about 1:30 p.m., police said. The man was taken to a hospital in critical condition, and police said they had a person of interest in custody.

Personal safety in the subways is generally comparable to safety in the city as a whole. But life-threatening crimes such as stabbings and shoves spread alarm about the trains that have carried more than 1 billion riders over the course of this year.

Police figures show major crimes on subways were down this year through November, compared with the same period last year, but killings rose from five to nine.

In Karam’s case, prosecutors have said she was asleep on a subway train that was stopped at a station in Brooklyn’s Coney Island when her clothes were set ablaze by a stranger, Sebastian Zapeta.

Zapeta, 33, allegedly fanned the flames with a shirt, engulfing her in the blaze, before sitting on a platform bench and watching as she burned.

Identifying the victim proved to be a challenge, and authorities said Friday that they were still using forensics and video surveillance to trace her.

Zapeta has been been indicted on murder and arson charges. He has not entered a plea, and his lawyer has declined to comment outside court.

Federal immigration officials say Zapeta is from Guatemala and entered the U.S. illegally. An address for him given by police matches a shelter that provides housing and substance abuse support.

Zapeta was arrested after police circulated images of a suspect and received a tip from a group of high school students.

Prosecutors have said Zapeta subsequently told police that he was the man in surveillance photos and videos of the fire being ignited, but that he drinks a lot of liquor and does not know what happened.

He is currently jailed, and his next court date is Jan. 7.

While it is not clear why Kawam was asleep in a subway car, New York’s subways often unofficially function as a refuge for homeless people. In theory, legal settlements give homeless individuals a broad right to shelter in the city, but some turn to the trains if they are unable to stay in shelters or fearful about safety in them.

On the morning of the fire, temperatures were around 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 6.5 Celsius) and had been below freezing for 24 hours, according to data from nearby Brooklyn weather stations.

“No matter where she lived, that should not have happened,” the mayor said.

The social services department said it would amplify its efforts to reach and help homeless people on streets and subways and encourage them to use shelters.

!This story has corrected Kawam’s age based on updated information from the police. She was 57, not 61.

Debrina Kawam of Toms River, N.J., was burned alive on Dec. 22 in a videotaped killing that shocked New York.

Investigators have learned the name of a woman who was burned alive — and beyond recognition — aboard a Brooklyn train last week.

The police identified the woman as Debrina Kawam of Toms River, N.J. She was the victim of an apparently random attack captured in videos that showed her bracing herself against the doorway of an F train in Coney Island, her body engulfed by flames. Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, has been accused of setting fire to Ms. Kawam with a lighter and was charged with first-degree murder and arson.

Ms. Kawam’s identity was confirmed on Monday through fingerprint analysis, said Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner’s office. Ms. Kawam was 57, though police officials initially had said she was 61.

Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday that she briefly stayed in the city’s homeless shelter system. “No matter where she lived, that should not have happened,” Mr. Adams said.

“Just watching that tape — I couldn’t even watch it all the way through,” he added.

Investigators had used every means possible to identify the woman, the Brooklyn district attorney, Eric Gonzalez, said at a news conference last week. They took her fingerprints and collected DNA evidence. They gathered surveillance footage from the subways, hoping to find a clear image of the woman’s face before the fire.

The fragmentary traces Ms. Kawam left behind in yearbooks and public records sketch a troubled life.

She appeared to have graduated from Passaic Valley Regional High School in Little Falls, N.J., four decades ago. Her yearbook entry from 1985 — illustrated with a photo of her with long, feathered hair — mentioned memories of freshman and sophomore cheerleading and trips to the shore. It listed her ambition as airline stewardess and said that her “secret ambition” was “to party forever.” In a senior poll, she was one of three girls voted “most punk” and one of three girls voted “million dollar smile.”

Municipal court records going back 20 years include dozens of minor cases against a Debrina Kawam in cities and towns along the Jersey Shore, in Jersey City and in the suburbs of New York. Most were citations for public drinking, trespassing or disorderly conduct, including the most recent, in July, for public drinking in Atlantic City.

In a 2008 bankruptcy filing, she wrote that she had not been working “due to illness.” After her father, William Kawam, died in 2009, she posted on a tribute page that he was the best father a daughter could have had, and that “I will always regret that it took me later in life to figure that out.”

Roxann Krammer, a Toms River resident, said that her late husband, George Krammer, had been Ms. Kawam’s romantic partner from about 2011 to 2014 and that they had lived together. The relationship, her husband had told her, had been chaotic.

The police gave an address for Ms. Kawam in Toms River, a small, gray one-story home that had been owned by the victim’s mother in a sprawling retirement community. A neighbor said that until the house was sold in 2024, she would see an older woman and someone Ms. Kawam’s age coming and going.

The older woman seemed to be taking care of the younger woman, who appeared disabled, and would lead her by the hand, said the neighbor, Valerie Waskiewicz.

“I had the impression that the older woman had her hands full taking care of the younger woman,” she said.

The current owner of the home, Olga Corpion, said she had never met Ms. Kawam or her mother, but that in May, shortly after she moved in, a stranger came to her door.

“She said ‘I’m Debrina, I want to see my mother,’” Ms. Corpion recalled. Ms. Corpion said it seemed odd that someone would not know that her mother had moved and Ms. Corpion said that Ms. Kawam seemed troubled. She said she offered to call Ms. Kawam with information about her mother, but Ms. Kawam told her she had no phone and quickly left.

Ms. Kawam was in New York City as early as April 28, when the police issued her a summons in Midtown Manhattan for drinking on a public sidewalk, according to city records. She was scheduled to appear in June, but did not show up. Her social service records show that she stayed at a women’s shelter in the Bronx from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2.

On Dec. 22, around 7:30 a.m., Ms. Kawam was sitting motionless on a subway train, apparently asleep, when Mr. Zapeta-Calil walked up, took out a lighter and set her on fire, according to prosecutors and the police. He then stepped out of the train and sat on a bench on the subway platform, staring as the smoke and flames overwhelmed Ms. Kawam, the police said.

Then, video of the incident shows a man who appears to be Mr. Zapeta-Calil rising and approaching Ms. Kawam. Instead of trying to douse the blaze, he waves a shirt at her, appearing to fan the flames. At least one police officer can be seen walking by her as people on the platform scream.

Officers who came to the scene did not appear to focus on Mr. Zapeta-Calil sitting on the bench as they tended to Ms. Kawam. But their body cameras had captured him and the clothes he wore: a gray, hooded sweatshirt; a wool hat; tan boots; and paint-splattered pants.

The Police Department released the photos publicly and soon after, three teenagers called 911. They said they had recognized Mr. Zapeta-Calil from the photos and that he was aboard another train in Brooklyn. The police ordered the train stopped and arrested him.

The authorities do not believe Ms. Kawam and Mr. Zapeta-Calil knew each other. She was already on the train when he boarded it in Queens, and they both rode to the end of the line in Coney Island, the official added, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. People often sleep on subway trains in cold weather; the outside temperature on the morning Ms. Kawam was killed was 16 degrees.

Mr. Zapeta-Calil is an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who was deported in 2018 only to illegally return to the United States, according to federal immigration officials.

The suspect had been living for the past couple of months at a shelter in Brooklyn for men with drug and alcohol problems, according to the police and residents of the shelter. A grand jury indicted him last week on first-degree murder, second-degree murder and arson charges.

After Mr. Zapeta-Calil’s arrest, federal officials issued two immigration detainers, according to Jeffrey Carter, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Detainers are requests to the police and the city Department of Correction that they notify the federal agency before Mr. Zapeta-Calil’s court case is done and is released from jail.

City sanctuary laws prevent city agencies from sharing immigration information about defendants with federal officials, including when they will be released from police custody or from jail. However, the laws let the agencies tell ICE about noncitizens who have been convicted of any of 177 serious offenses, including rape and felony assault.