Transit workers who helped bring riders to safety during shooting honored at City Hall

As the platform filled with smoke and bloodied passengers exiting the Brooklyn train car, N train operator David Artis directed passengers to board an R train across the platform.

Moments before, 33 gun shots were fired on the train he was driving.

“I was shouting to the people, ‘Get on the train, get on the train!’ so they got on the train and some of the injured got on the train,” explained Artis. “So I had to get on the radio to tell control to stop the train at 25th street because some of the passengers that were injured were on that train.”

Artis was the first person to call in the shooting and to find the bag filled with weapons and the keys to a U-Haul truck that helped lead law enforcement officials to arrest the alleged subway shooter.

The quick thinking by Artis, his partner Raven Haynes, and his colleagues Michael Catalano, Willy Sanchez, Joseph Franchi, Dayron Williams and Parla Mejia earned them proclamations declaring April 15 of 2022 in their honor.

“You stayed calm. You stayed focused and you saved lives,” said Mayor Eric Adams, addressing the transit workers virtually while he continues to recover from COVID-19.

Sunset Park resident and the N train conductor Tuesday morning Raven Haynes says she just followed her training when she got word of the active shooter.

“At no point did I think about my own personal safety, I just wanted to make sure my passengers were safe and they were calm and got out of the area as quickly and safely as possible without adding on to additional chaos,” she said.

Above ground, B37 bus operator Parla Mejia had no idea what was happen on the N train, but when she saw people running towards her bus she said she opened the doors, got them on board, and began driving.

“I squeezed as many passengers as I could on that bus,” she explained.

Mejia said her adrenaline kicked in, “and I was like okay, We got this. Let’s get on a move here.“

MTA employees said they’ll get back to work when they are allowed to and get back on the train like they hope the rest of city does.