Last Updated on May 24, 2022
25-year-old Andrew Abdullah has been arrested after allegedly killing 48-year-old Daniel Enriquez in an “unprovoked” attack. The shooting took place on an NYC subway car as it pulled into the Canal Street station this past Sunday. Enriquez, who worked for Goldman Sachs, is the fourth person to be murdered on an NYC subway car this year.
The suspect sought to turn himself in through a Brooklyn clergy member, who showed up at the 5th Precinct in a Rolls Royce Tuesday afternoon in order to negotiate the alleged gunman’s surrender. NYPD found his location and arrested Abdullah before negotiations were completed, police said.
Abdullah was initially identified as a person of interest in the random and unprovoked shooting of Enriquez, according to police sources, who on Tuesday said he was the suspect in the shooting. He has yet to be formally charged, according to The New York Post.
Bishop Lamor Whitehead, who was negotiating Abdullah’s surrender with the city government, declared that Abdullah is innocent. “This man is innocent,” Whitehead said of Abdullah. “His family has untold paperwork showing that he has mental health issues. As he states, he doesn’t remember anything.”
“I pray that the courts do the right thing with this young man,” Whitehead continued. “But as per him wanting to turn himself in, I don’t believe he’s a villain.”
Abdullah’s lawyers complained that he was arrested while negotiations were ongoing. “Before Andrew Abdullah could voluntarily surrender himself to the local precinct, he was needlessly ambushed out front of our Manhattan trial office by City Marshals, denied of his opportunity to first consult with counsel,” his layers said in a statement.
“Since last night we have been actively speaking with the New York Police Department and the New York County District Attorney’s Office to negotiate his surrender, and what transpired today was completely inappropriate and unwarranted given those conversations,” they continued.
RELATED: Man Shot and Killed Aboard NYC Subway in ‘Unprovoked’ Attack
Watch as Police Commissioner Sewell and Mayor Adams provide and update on Sunday's subway homicide. https://t.co/T6KYvhLQCg
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) May 24, 2022
Andrew Abdullah has a lengthy rap sheet that includes 19 arrests since 2015. He was one of dozens of gang members from the Fast Money and Nine Block gangs who were charged by Manhattan prosecutors in 2017 for engaging in a “bloody feud” with rivals. Thirteen of the gang members were charged with 83 crimes including second-degree murder, attempted murder, several conspiracy charges and weapons charges.
In 2018, he pleaded guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon and other charges, for which he received a prison sentence in 2019. He was paroled later that year, according to State Department of Corrections records obtained by the New York Times.
He was soon facing new gun charges in January 2020 which are still pending, according to the New York Times. Abdullah was again charged in March 2021 with assault and endangering the welfare of a child. That case is also pending.
Still on the streets, Andrew Abdullah was again arrested this past April and charged with stolen property and unauthorized use of a vehicle.
BREAKING: A man suspected in the fatal weekend shooting of a New York City subway rider, was taken into custody. https://t.co/99Ad4rCIOy
Andrew Abdullah, 25, was arrested in the slaying of Brooklyn resident Daniel Enriquez, 48, who was shot to death while he rode the subway. pic.twitter.com/FbXp5osjCg
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) May 24, 2022
Abdullah is accused of pacing back and forth on an NYC subway car before shooting and killing Enriquez. “Completely unprovoked,” an NYPD spokesman said Monday.
The murder of Daniel Enriquez comes just one month after Frank James, a black nationalist, injured 10 in an indiscriminate attack on an NYC subway train.
