Conductor Peppered with Rubber Bullets on 6 Train

JANUARY 13—A 6 train conductor was left shaken up and disturbed after he was ambushed by a passenger and shot in the face with rubber bullets on Monday.

Conductor Isiah Steele, 37, had just started his run on the 6 Train about 4:00 AM at the first stop, Pelham Bay Park, when his attention was directed to the man who would later take aim and shoot him with a BB gun. Customers were already waiting as Steele boarded the train. As he entered, another rider motioned in the direction of a young man with a pony tail, who wore a two-tone red and black jacket.

“Someone told me he had something,” said Steele, “But that maybe it wasn’t a real gun."

The Conductor continued his trip, unaware of what would happen next.  

"I was thinking,” Steele remembered, “maybe it’s a Nerf gun – but I couldn’t see it.”

At 125th Street, the young man exited the train. Steele began his safety sweep of the platform, looking back and forward. Then he began to feel uneasy.

“I felt someone staring at me. As the train started moving, [the assailant] started shooting a BB gun. Three shots got me. One hit my glasses, one hit my hat. The other one hit my shoulder.”

Steele radioed control between stations and supervision took the train out of service at the next stop, 116th Street. Steele waited for EMS, then went by ambulance to Harlem Hospital for treatment. He said he believes the bullets were hard rubber, not metal. Steele gave the NYPD a description, and they were able to retrieve high quality photos of the suspect from interior cameras in the train car and have distributed the image and a description of a white Hispanic, about 5' 5", about 130 lbs., with black hair and black eyes. 

It wasn’t Steele’s first experience of assault. He was also spit on while on the job in 2018. But this latest incident has the Conductor rattled. 

"I'm not sure if I'll ever be relaxed again on the job. I'll probably never be the same. I'm more wary now," said Steele. 

RTO Vice President Tramell Thompson said the act was unacceptable.

“Assaults on RTO personnel will not be tolerated, and we are working with management right now on new policies and procedures to keep our members safe.”

Steele is mystified by the assault.

“I was asking myself 'why?'" Steele said. “I didn’t speak to him. There was no warning. When he shot me, I made eye contact. And it looked like he was happy about it, that he did a good job. He was standing there as the train pulled out. “It was four in the morning. I was asking, why did you wake up so angry?”

In response to question of whether crime is up or down in the system, Steele said, “Sometimes things happen but people don’t report it. How I feel, I don’t think crime is down. People make up numbers all the time.”

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Det. Ryan Specht at 212-529-4481 or the Detective Borough Manhattan South at 212-477-7447.