NYC mayor calls police after witnessing assault while taking subway to first day on the job

Eric Adams was sworn in just hours earlier

New York City Mayor Eric Adams jumped headfirst into tackling the city’s rise in crime when he called 911 to report an assault while taking the subway to work on his first day on the job.

The former police officer, who was sworn in as mayor just hours earlier, spotted three men fighting in a street in Brooklyn around 8am on Saturday morning.

Footage posted on social media shows Mr Adams watching the men through a railing from where he stood on the platform at the Kosciuszko J stop in Brooklyn on his way to City Hall.

The three men are seen throwing punches at each other on a sidewalk below.

The mayor, who was sporting a face mask, was filmed on his cellphone speaking to a 911 dispatcher.

“Yes, I’m at Broadway and Kosciuszko and I have an assault in progress. Three males,” the mayor says.

“Yes, I’m sorry? No - assault in progress, not past assault.

“They are fighting each other on the street right now, three males.”

Mr Adams did not give his identity as the new mayor until the end of the call when he told the dispatcher: “Adams, Mayor Adams.”

Two police cars responded to the scene around five minutes later, by which time the men were getting into a car and leaving the scene, according to the New York Post.

The police officers then left the scene without questioning anyone.

The incident unfolded when Mr Adams was joined by members of the public and the media as he made his first day’s commute to his new workplace at City Hall.

“Once a transit cop always a transit cop,” he said of the encounter.

Mr Adams was sworn in as mayor just minutes after the ball dropped in Times Square at midnight to celebrate the New Year.

The 61-year-old is the city’s 110th mayor overall and second Black mayor, after David Dinkins was in office from 1990 to 1993.

Eric Adams is sworn in as the 110th Mayor of New York City during the New Year’s celebrations in Times Square (REUTERS)

As a retired NYPD captain, he vowed during his mayoral campaign to stop violent crime in the streets of the city following an increase during the pandemic.

During his first speech as mayor in City Hall on Saturday, he promised to “put more resources into stopping violent crime while I work with [the police] commissioner [Keechant] Sewell to bring reform to our police department”.

Mr Adams also called on New Yorkers to not be “controlled by crisis” and to get vaccinated as the city deals with a renewed spike in Covid-19 cases.

“This will be our New Year’s resolution: We will not be controlled by crisis,” he said.