Police say the same group attacked two riders on a northbound train in Brooklyn within about 20 minutes early April 10.
BROOKLYN, NY — New York police are asking for help identifying six people they say attacked two men on a northbound L train in Brooklyn early April 10, robbing one rider after using a Taser and threatening another with a knife before both victims escaped with non-life-threatening injuries.
The case has drawn fresh attention because detectives say the same group struck twice in quick succession on the same subway line, turning what might have been treated as a single assault into a suspected robbery pattern in the city’s transit system. The victims, ages 56 and 30, were attacked near stations in East New York and Bushwick, according to police. The NYPD has released surveillance video and still images and, as of Monday, had announced no arrests. The search comes as police say overall transit felonies are slightly down this year, even while robberies in the system have risen.
According to police, the first attack happened at about 1:30 a.m. Friday, April 10, as a northbound L train approached the Sutter Avenue area. Investigators say six unidentified people approached a 56-year-old man aboard the train, punched and kicked him, and shocked him with a Taser. Police say the group then took his bag. News reports and the NYPD’s public bulletin place the violence along the same overnight ride, with the man ultimately taken to a hospital and expected to recover. Detectives later released video that appears to show six people entering a station together, some jumping over or ducking under turnstiles, a detail that investigators believe may help track the group’s movements before the attacks.
Police say the second confrontation came about 20 minutes later, at about 1:50 a.m., on the same northbound line near the Bushwick Avenue-Aberdeen Street station. This time, investigators say, the six approached a 30-year-old man and attacked him on the train. One person in the group tried to use a Taser, police said, while another displayed a knife and tried to slash the victim. The man managed to get off the train and was not seriously injured, according to police. Detectives have not publicly said whether anything was stolen from the second victim, whether the men were targeted at random, or whether the six knew either rider before the encounters. Police also have not said whether the suspects boarded together earlier in the trip or whether they were captured on additional station cameras farther along the line.
The investigation now centers on the released surveillance footage and the question of whether the attacks were planned or opportunistic. Police have described the matter as a Brooklyn transit robbery pattern, language that signals detectives believe the cases are linked and may be part of a broader sequence rather than two unrelated outbursts. The video released by investigators shows six people entering a station together, many wearing masks or partial face coverings. That could make identifications harder, especially in overnight transit cases, where rider traffic is thinner and eyewitness accounts can be limited. Even so, the timing, the shared train line, the small gap between the incidents and the repeated use or attempted use of a Taser all give detectives a tight set of common facts to work from as they compare video, train movements and station entry records.
The attacks also land at a tense moment in the city’s transit safety debate. In an April 15 report on subway crime trends, ABC7 said NYPD statistics showed transit felonies were down 1.5% year to date and assaults were down 5.5%, but robberies were up 15%, to 136 from 118 at the same point last year. NYPD Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta told the station that police were increasing their presence underground, including officers riding trains where crimes are occurring. The department’s latest citywide CompStat report, covering the week of April 13 through April 19, listed 636 transit crimes year to date compared with 651 during the same stretch in 2025, a 2.3% decline overall. Those broader numbers do not erase the fear created by violent, close-range attacks inside train cars, especially in the early morning hours when riders can feel isolated and exits are limited until the next stop.
For Brooklyn riders, the geography of the case matters. The L train runs through neighborhoods with heavy daily use and significant late-night traffic, linking Manhattan to Williamsburg, Bushwick, East New York and Canarsie. The stations named by police, including Bushwick Avenue-Aberdeen Street and the Sutter Avenue area, sit on a corridor where many riders depend on the train at hours when street options are thinner. That helps explain why the case has drawn outsized attention despite the relatively small number of victims. A violent robbery on a moving train can compress several fears into one incident: passengers cannot easily leave, suspects can move car to car or exit quickly at the next platform, and surveillance often captures only fragments unless investigators can stitch together station footage. Police have not released descriptions such as names, ages or boroughs for the suspects, and they have not said whether they believe all six played the same role in each attack.
Procedurally, the case remains in the identification stage. Detectives have asked the public to review the surveillance video and still images and are seeking information that could establish the suspects’ names, travel paths and any connections between them. No charges have been announced because no suspect has been publicly identified or arrested. Once detectives make an arrest, prosecutors would decide whether the facts support robbery, assault, attempted assault, weapon possession or other charges, depending on each person’s alleged role. Police have not announced a court date, an arraignment or a formal deadline for updates. What is known is that the case is being treated as linked transit violence, and that investigators are likely to keep building it through camera footage, MetroCard or tap data, witness interviews and hospital records tied to the first victim’s injuries.
The human details are stark even in the brief public record. One rider, a 56-year-old man, ended his trip in a hospital after police say he was kicked, punched and shocked in the neck before losing his bag. Another rider, 30, got off the train after police said someone in the group brandished a knife and tried to slash him. Gulotta, speaking broadly about subway safety last week, said officers need to be “on the train where the crimes are occurring,” a comment that captures the challenge in cases like this, where an attack can unfold between stations and be over before help arrives. For riders who use the L overnight, the case is a reminder that even as systemwide crime figures improve in some categories, a pair of fast-moving attacks can quickly shake confidence in a single line.
As of Monday, the six people shown in the NYPD video had not been publicly identified, and the next key milestone is whether detectives can turn the images from the April 10 attacks into arrests in what police say was a two-stop burst of violence on a northbound Brooklyn train.
Author note: Last updated April 20, 2026.