NYPD detectives say they have identified the gunman in the fatal shooting of a 41-year-old man at a Bronx subway stop — and are asking for the public’s help in finding him.
Alberto Frias is wanted for questioning in the killing of Adrian Dawodu at the 170th St. station on Tuesday.
Cops released both a photo of Frias, 27, at the scene of the shooting and his mugshot in the hopes someone can alert cops to his whereabouts.
Police sources said Frias and Dawodu knew each other before the deadly 3 p.m. shooting at E. 170th St. and Grand Concourse in Mount Eden.
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.
“Our eventual shooter is pacing back and forth (on the platform),” Kenny said during a briefing at NYPD Headquarters Friday, describing surveillance footage taken at the station. “They finally confront each other, and they square off and fight.”
During the fight, Frias pulls his gun, threatening to use it, at which point Dawodu “starts swinging” at the gunman, the chief recounted.
“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.
Medics rushed him to Lincoln Hospital, where he died, cops said. The bullet cut through an artery and he ultimately bled to death, Kenny said.
Another video recorded by straphangers 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 said.
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 weapons possession in 2016 and has been arrested on domestic violence charges in Westchester County, Kenny said.
Dawodu lived in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, cops said. He was emotionally disturbed and was a regular at the Bronx subway stop, Kenny said.
“He is always on the platform, constantly yelling and screaming at people,” the chief said.
No arrests have been made in his killing.
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.
Cops are asking anyone with information regarding Frias’ whereabouts is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.