MTA workers honored for 'calm' during subway shooting: 'You saved lives'

Passengers started banging on N-train motorman David Artis’ cab during Tuesday morning’s commute. At first he thought someone just needed directions.

But then Artis saw smoke, and passengers said gunshots had been fired — in the tunnel between the 59th Street and 36th Street express stops in Brooklyn.

“Everybody was at my cab door,” said Artis, 47, who has worked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for nearly 15 years. He added: “They said, ‘We heard a loud bang! Shots fired! There’s smoke!’”

He radioed rail control, and the train’s conductor, Raven Haynes, 29, started making announcements to the rush hour passengers about what was going on — first urging them to board the train across the platform, then helping with the emergency response.

“I finally looked down towards the front of the train, and I saw the whole entire second car engulfed in smoke,” she said Friday after the crew and other public transit personnel got proclamations at City Hall for their actions Tuesday morning.

Suspect Frank James, 62, who Thursday was ordered jailed on a terrorism charge, is accused of injuring nearly three dozen people when he allegedly opened fire Tuesday before 8:26 a.m. on the train passing under Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood. Ten passengers were shot, none fatally. James was captured in Manhattan after a 30-hour manhunt.

James' lawyer Mia Eisner-Grynberg cautioned against a rush to judgment and said initial news accounts tend to be wrong.

The NYPD announced in a news release that five people who called in tips that helped lead to the arrest would split the $50,000 reward money.

The train crew were among seven MTA workers whose names were read on Friday morning at City Hall to honor their actions Tuesday. Several of the workers spoke to the press after the ceremony.

“I want to thank you for your service to your city and your bravery on that morning. When bullets were flying, 33 to be exact, you stayed calm, stayed focused, and you saved lives. Calm, focused and you saved lives. Thanks to you, no passenger was left behind, no lives were lost,” said Mayor Eric Adams, who was speaking by video because he’s isolating because he has COVID-19.

On Tuesday, after the train cars and station were evacuated of passengers, Artis looked down and found what turned out to be suspect James’ luggage that he'd left behind, near bullet casings on the floor. There also was blood in the train car and platform.

Upstairs, on the street, city bus driver Parla Mejia saw dozens of people, 30 high school students and 50 adults, running toward her B37 bus.

“I squeezed as many passengers as I could on that bus. I told them ‘if you can put three in a seat, let’s, let me get you guys safely to the end,’” Mejia, 54, said. She added: “I had some children on the bus just crying uncontrollably.”

All day, Mejia drove back and forth between the shooting scene and Atlantic Terminal, shuttling stranded passengers — even after her shift had technically ended. She worked from 5 a.m. to midnight that day.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.