Family of slain straphanger pleads with City Hall amid runaway transit crime
The family of the Goldman Sachs employee who was gunned down in a random subway attack Sunday morning has a message for Mayor Eric Adams: “Do your job.”
Griselda Vile decried the gun violence that cut short the life of her 48-year-old brother, Daniel Enriquez, who was riding a Q train on his way to brunch.
“No one, no one, no one should have this happen to their family,” Vile told The Post Sunday evening.
“And the worst part is, even if they catch this person, he’s going to be out again,” she added, touching on the state’s bail reform laws that have let so many criminals back out on the street.
She added, “I wish you guys would go back to Mayor Adams and tell him the city is not safe. My brother just became a statistic on the way to the city. He was shot at close range.”
Her husband, Glenn Vile, had a more sobering message for Adams, who inherited a crime-ridden city and has vowed to crack down on gun violence.
“Do your job,” he said. “Get crime off the streets.”
Enriquez, who lived in Park Slope, was on a Manhattan-bound Q train when the deranged gunman opened fire without warning over the Manhattan Bridge around 11:42 a.m., mortally wounding him. The shooter then fled from the Canal Street station.
NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said at a press briefing that the killer — described as a dark-skinned, heavyset man with a beard — was pacing back and forth on the northbound train when he fired “without provocation.”
“There was no interaction with the murderer at all,” Griselda told The Post. “How can an incredibly loving man be taken away for no reason?”
Cops recovered a firearm that they believe was used in the crime, sources said. The shooter was on the loose Sunday night.
Griselda said her brother sent his last text to the family about one hour before the slaying, adding that her family is devastated over the senseless murder.
“We just spoke to him this morning. We’re in a group text. Our parents are in their 70s, under the weather and we all text and call Mom and Dad and we all text in the family thread …,” she said. “We may be a whole country apart, but we’re a very close family.”
Enriquez worked for Goldman Sachs for nine years as an investment researcher. The company’s CEO, David Solomon, mourned the loss in a statement Sunday night.
“Daniel Enriquez was a dedicated and beloved member of the Goldman Sachs family for nine years,” Soloman said.
“He worked diligently to support our Macro Research team in New York and epitomized our culture of collaboration and excellence. We are devastated by this senseless tragedy and our deepest sympathies are with Dan’s family at this difficult time.”
During the pandemic, Griselda said, her brother taught himself how to speak two languages in addition to learning to play the guitar and piano.
“We usually don’t talk about work,” she said. “We’re born in New York. We left when the crime got high in the ’80s and he came back in ’96 and attended NYU and I came back in 2003 to be with my brother.
“I idolized my brother,” she continued. “I followed in his footsteps in so many things. He was my hero. When I was little, he protected us. We grew up poor. We grew up as Mexicans. We had to fight for every opportunity and every success we had.
She then said she was “going to go downstairs and cry in my sister’s arms.”
“I hope New York listens. And the mayor listens,” Vile said.
Griselda said the focus should be on making the city safer.
“I want every New Yorker to realize this could be your reality tomorrow — your worst nightmare could come true,” she said. “I don’t want this to be an attack on the mayor. I want him to focus on New York as a community.”
She added: “We’re five boroughs, we try to look out for each other. We don’t feel safe. I don’t feel comfortable having my daughter take the train and now I have more reason to feel more scared. Now everyone who knows my brother is gonna be more scared.”
The fatal shooting is the fourth transit homicide so far this year, matching the total for the same time span last year, city statistics show.
Police said they are reviewing surveillance footage to try to identify the gunman.
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Haley Brown
