A man has revealed that he was shot while shielding a pregnant woman from gunfire during the Brooklyn subway shootings this week.
Around 8.30 AM on Tuesday, a man open-fired on a train carriage as it pulled into Brooklyn's 36th Street station in the Sunset Park neighborhood. The attack saw a total of 29 people hospitalized with injuries, including gunshot wounds and issues from smoke inhalation.
Just hours after the attack, one of those survivors appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 from his hospital bed. Despite his injuries, Hourari Benkada was able to give CNN anchor John Berman a harrowing first-hand account of the shooting.
He began by explaining that the gunman - who New York Police suspect is Frank R. James - was sitting next to him on the carriage. "The guy was next to me, I didn't get a glimpse of his face. All you see is a black smoke bomb going off and then people bum-rushing to the back," Benkada described.
"This pregnant woman was in front of me. I was trying to help her. I didn't know if there were shots at first. I just thought it was a black smoke bomb," he continued.
Benkada went on to explain how he was shot while throwing himself in front of the expectant mother. "She said 'I'm pregnant with a baby." I hugged her and then the bum-rush continued. I got pushed and that's when I got shot in the back of my knee," he recalled.
The brave survivor went on to say that he is in extreme pain from his injuries and that the trauma of the event has left him never wanting to ride a train again.
Authorities named James as their chief suspect in the Brooklyn attack yesterday, after initially announcing that he was a 'person of interest' in connection to the case. After a 30-hour manhunt, the 62-year-old was arrested in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon, per BBC.
Benkada was asked by CNN anchors whether he could identify James as the gunman from his photograph. He was unable to confirm anything because the shooter wore a mask throughout the attack.
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