A suspect was arrested Thursday for the fatal shooting of a 41-year-old man inside a Bronx subway station earlier this month, police said Thursday.
Alberto Frias is facing murder, manslaughter and weapon possession charges for allegedly killing Adrian Dawodu at the 170th St. station about 3 p.m. Feb 10.
Cops last week released a surveillance photo of Frias, 27, at the scene of the shooting along with an old mugshot and asked the public’s help tracking him down.
Police sources said Frias and Dawodu knew each other.
The two men entered the subway station separately and began arguing while the platform was filled with straphangers, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Friday.
“Our eventual shooter is pacing back and forth (on the platform),” Kenny said, describing surveillance footage recovered by cops. “They finally confront each other and they square off and fight.”
As the clash escalated, Frias pulled a gun, threatening to use it, at which point Dawodu “starts swinging” at the gunman, Kenny said.
“The fight extends all the way down the platform, probably about like 25 feet,” Kenny said. “They come together, and this is where our victim gets shot.”
Dawodu was struck in the thigh, with the bullet piercing an artery, causing him to bleed to death, Kenny said. Medics rushed Dawodu to Lincoln Hospital, where he died.
Cell phone video recorded by a straphanger aboard a train passing through the station shows the killer shove Dawodu, who collapses to the platform covered in blood.
Anderson Moina Cruz, 17, witnessed the violence.
“The dude just pushed the guy and started running. The guy on the floor was bleeding and there was no movement,” he told The News. “[The shooter] ran fast, like the Olympics. I wasn’t going to be no hero.”
Cruz left the station where the shooting occurred, only to find police blocking the entrance to his apartment building four blocks away on Townsend Ave. and E. 172nd St.
“When I got home, people were saying, ‘He ran in here, he ran in here,’” he said, referring to the suspect.
Kenny confirmed Frias was spotted entering the Townsend Ave. building, adding that he quickly changed clothes and asked his girlfriend to order an Uber for him.
“We have him on video running back to the apartment. He’s very frantic,” Kenny said, adding that Frias dropped a shell casing in his bedroom as he changed. “It must have been in his clothing.”
The alleged shooter didn’t explain to his girlfriend and a relative what happened, but “when he showed up he was covered in blood,” Kenny said.
“I guess they put two and two together,” he added.
Cops identified Frias from surveillance images taken at and near the subway stop with the help of the NYPD’s facial recognition technology, officials said. He was previously arrested for weapon possession in 2016 and has been arrested on domestic violence charges in Westchester County, Kenny said.
Dawodu was emotionally disturbed and a regular at the Bronx subway stop, police said.
“He is always on the platform, constantly yelling and screaming at people,” Kenny said.
The victim’s ex-girlfriend, Courtney McEaddy, 40, a NYCHA worker, set up a memorial for him at the Washington Heights apartment building where they used to live together.
“He dealt with mental health issues, but I loved him, she said. “He worked construction. He was a landscaper and gardener and he had his OSHA license.”
“He was living in a shelter but he was trying to get his life together,” she added. “He was trying to get an apartment of his own … He was Nigerian but he was born here. He comes from a close family. He leaves two brothers and a sister.”
Dawodu’s slaying was the first shooting this year in the city’s subway system. Three people were shot in the subway last year, all in separate incidents, NYPD crime stats show. That marked a dramatic drop from 2024, when 14 people were shot in the transit system.
