Jacobi Hospital Shooter Saw 'Rival' By Chance In ER, Adams Says

NEW YORK CITY — A happenstance encounter in Jacobi Medical Center between two suspected gang rivals led to a brazen shooting in the hospital's emergency room, Mayor Eric Adams said.

Adams said Wednesday that the man accused of opening fire in the hospital — first identified as Keber Martinez, 25, by the New York Post — walked into the hospital because of an asthma attack.

While being treated, the accused shooter spotted a potentially gang-connected "rival," Adams said.

“They pulled out a gun and shot the person,” he said.

"Sitting in the emergency room at the time were families, a child and hospital staff," he said.

The Tuesday shooting is only the latest in a spate of high-profile gun violence incidents in New York City, one of which led to the deaths of two NYPD officers.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday that gun violence across the state rose 80 percent in a very short amount of time.

Adams, who spoke during a Hochul-led roundtable on gun violence, said recent shootings in New York City were part of a wave of gun violence.

“Our city, our state and our country have become an ocean of violence,” he said.

“The incident personified how urgent the moment is,” he said about the Jacobi incident.

Martinez faces an attempted murder charge in connection to the shooting, the New York Post reported.

Police arrested Martinez late Tuesday in Harlem after his sister called to report he had a gun, according to the Post.

Adams said the incident was only one of "many problems." He said hospital staff told him about a previous incident in which an X-ray revealed a man carried a gun into the hospital.