A 27-year-old man who is recovering in the hospital after Tuesday morning's subway attack in Brooklyn says he sat right next to the gunman who went on to shoot him and nine others.
Hourari Benkada is 'shocked' and 'shaky' and doesn't know if he can ever again ride the subway, which has seen a rise in crime in recent months.
'I was on 59th street on the R train transferring to the N train on 59th, so it was the first car, last seats.
'I'm not really paying attention to that, so I just walk in. I sat down and the guy is right next to me, and all you see is a black smoke bomb going off and then people bum-rushing to the back,' Benkada told CNN's John Berman.
He stopped to help a pregnant woman and was pushed by the panicked crowd. He was shot behind his right knee, but doctors expect him to walk on his own after several weeks on crutches.
Another passenger, Fitim Gjeloshi, says he remembers the harrowing moment the gunman - who is still on the loose - decided to shroud his attack in smoke.
'I looked at him, and I thought to myself he was talking to himself for like a while, so I looked at him, and I was like, "This guy must be on drugs,'" he told the New York Post.
'When [the train] was about to hit 36th Street, we stopped for 5 minutes. He takes out a gas mask from one of his little luggage[s]. He opened one of his gas tanks, and he said, "Oops, my bad." He pulls out an ax, he drops it, he takes a gun out, he starts shooting.'
The gunman fired 33 shots, hitting at least 10 people before 8.30am. No casualties have been reported.
The NYPD has named Frank James, 62, as a person of interest in the attack. Police say the keys found at the crime scene belong to a U-Haul truck in Philadelphia that was rented by James.
Hourari Benkada, 27, says he was sitting right next to the gunman before he let off a smoke bomb and opened fire on passengers aboard an N train in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning
He says he stopped to help a pregnant woman but couldn't make much sense of the scene as he was distracted and listening to music like he would during any commute
Benkada, a hotel housekeeping manager, was shot in the back of the knee. The bullet came out through the side of his knee and grazed his kneecap. He's expected to walk on his own again
He remembers 'a black smoke bomb going off and then people bum-rushing to the back.' Above, terrified passengers run off the train Tuesday morning
NYPD are hunting for Frank James, described as a 'person of interest' in the Brooklyn subway shooting
Overall crime in New York City is up 44.3 percent from last year. Transit crimes are up 68 percent and shooting incidents are up 8.4 percent, according to to the latest numbers from the NYPD.
Benkada, 27, is a housekeeping manager at the New Yorker Hotel. He's recovering from his gunshot wounds at the hospital.
He says he sat next to the man with a duffle bag and an MTA vest who would later send him there.
The morning commuter says he doesn't remember many specifics because he was distracted and wearing his headphones. He says the gunman wore a mask so he wasn't able to compare him to James, the NYPD's person of interest.
Benkada said he was 'shaking' during Tuesday's CNN interview, conducted via FaceTime as he recovers in the hospital. 'I don't even know how I'm holding my phone,' he said.
He remembers black smoke and people rushing to the back.
'Oh my god, I'm pregnant,' one woman told her. He hugged her and was later shot in the back of the knee while trying to run away.
He says the shooting felt like it took over a minute.
'It sounded like the loudest thing I ever heard in my life,' he said.
'We were trying to break the door, and the train took forever to reach the station. Once it opened at 36th St., I was in so much pain,' Benkada said in a separate interview with the New York Daily News.
A bullet hit him in the back of the knee and came out of the other side. Doctors told him it grazed his kneecap, but he's expected to recover after several weeks on crutches.
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Overall crime in New York City is up 44.3% from last year. Transit crimes are up 68%
Another passenger, Fitim Gjeloshi, says he remembers the moment the gunman pulled out the smoke bomb and said, 'Oops, my bad.'
Gjeloshi says the gunman began shooting and that a bullet narrowly missed him. He showed the Daily News a photo of a bullet hole that went through his pants without hitting the right area of his groin.
He remembers jumping over seats and yelling for people to switch cars, but the door at the end wasn't working. He says he 'kicked the handle of the door and broke the hell out of it.
'I think he planned it on purpose because he knew exactly what he was doing,' Gjeloshi said.
At least 29 people have been taken to the hospital in connection with the subway shooting, CNN said after calling several area hospitals. Ten were shot, while other sustained injuries during the commotion.
The New York Fire Department says it treated a total of 17 people - 15 who were taken to area hospitals and two at the scene.
A teenage boy was shot in the thumb.
'It was pretty devastating injury to the thumb and it destroyed a lot of a bone, the joint the tendons, the nerves are able to salvage the thumb and it’s alive. And he’ll need some more surgery,' said surgeon Jack Choueka from Maimonides Medical Center in nearby Borough Park.
'It's expected that he'll have a pretty functioning hand and cosmetically it should look should look very good. So we’re not out of the woods completely on his hand but we’re very happy with the with the results tonight,' Dr. Choueka said.
A federal law enforcement source told read more from dailymail.....
