Date:    April 14, 2022
To:    The NYU Community
Re:    Safety Update: An Arrest in Tuesday's Subway Attack

Yesterday afternoon city officials announced the arrest of the suspect in Tuesday’s horrific shooting attack upon morning commuters. The threat posed by the gunman is over, and we hope that the victims of this terrible, senseless crime can begin healing without the uncertainty of their assailant's whereabouts hanging over them.

The trauma of this event is not limited to those on the platform or to those who were on the train or to those who were injured by the smoke, gunfire, or panic. For many of us, it will be difficult for us not to imagine ourselves in the place of those New Yorkers injured and terrorized on Tuesday morning. The subway and a rush hour commute are a daily part of many New Yorkers' lives.

For that reason, in the days to come, we should strive to be thoughtful to one another, to be attentive to one another's needs and anxieties, to lend a hand, to offer a shoulder, and to help reassert calm and equanimity. Events such as these—sudden and terrible— are rarely accompanied with opportunities to recover and get our bearings; the demands and expectations of daily life push on. That's difficult.

But it can be eased by remembering we are going through it together, that we are part of a larger community, and that our community has resources to help. Together, it is possible to regain our footing more surely and less painfully. Together, we go through an event like this and come out stronger thanks to the help we receive and the help we offer. I want everyone to be mindful of the resources we have to support students and to support faculty and employees.

I wish we could all be spared the kind of incomprehensible violence to which New York was subjected on Tuesday. At the least, I hope that—as scholars and learners and teachers, as members of a community that abhors and rejects violence and embraces reason—in the fullness of time it will be a less frequent part of all of our lives.

Be well. Be safe.