A man wounded in Tuesday’s New York City subway mass shooting may have helped save an expectant mother from being among the victims.
Hourari Benkada, appearing on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360″ Tuesday night from his hospital bed, recounted the harrowing moments during that day’s morning rush hour on a subway in Brooklyn to anchor John Berman.
Benkada, like many New York commuters, said he wasn’t paying close attention to those around him when “a black smoke bomb” went off and passengers began “bum-rushing to the back” of the train car.
His first instinct, he said, was to approach a woman sitting near him who he noticed “had a belly.”
“This pregnant woman was in front of me. I was trying to help her. I didn’t know if there were shots at first,” he said. “I just thought it was a black smoke bomb.”
“She said, ‘I’m pregnant with a baby.’ I hugged her and then the bum-rush continued,” he said. “I got pushed and that’s when I got shot in the back of my knee.”
Benkada said he reacted on instinct when the woman told him, “Oh my God, I’m pregnant!”
“I was just focused on the pregnant woman and that is when I got struck in the leg. I was just on my way to work,” he said.
It turned out the gunman was sitting next to Benkada, he said.
“The guy was next to me, but I didn’t get a glimpse of his face,” Benkada said, noting that the shooter was wearing a face mask.
The suspect, Frank R. James, was captured in Manhattan’s East Village on Wednesday amid a massive police search.
Ten people were shot and more than a dozen others were injured in the mayhem. The motive for the attack wasn’t clear,
Benkada told CNN that he is “extremely in pain” and is unable to stand. He said he was in shock at first and didn’t know his injury was serious until he got off the subway and noticed a wound “the size of a quarter, just gushing out blood.”
He said several times in the interview that never wants to ride the subway again.
As for the pregnant woman, Benkada told Berman that he believes she got off the train safely.
“I did see her in [a] video make it out,” he said.