Carlton McPherson, in police custody, leaves a station house on Tuesday.

New York was stunned again this week by two shocking instances of violence after a police officer was shot and killed and a commuter was fatally struck after being pushed in front of a subway train.

The shooting happened on Monday afternoon in the Far Rockaway section of Queens, police said, after Officer Jonathan Diller and his partner encountered a vehicle illegally parked at a bus stop.

As they approached, a man inside the vehicle shot Diller below his bulletproof vest, Police Commissioner Edward Caban said. Diller was taken to hospital but could not be saved, officials said.

Diller had been with the New York Police Department for three years, was married and had a 1-year-old son, Caban said on X. It marked the first slaying of an NYPD officer in two years.

"We lost one of our sons today, and it is extremely painful," New York Mayor Eric Adams said on Monday.

The alleged gunman, identified as Guy Rivera, 34, has 21 prior arrests, and was imprisoned for five years on drug charges, the New York Post reported. He was released in 2021 and off parole the following year.

The driver of the car, Lindy Jones, 41, has been arrested at least 14 times, including for an attempted murder, for which he was sentenced to a decade behind bars, the Post reported.

"We have a real recidivism problem with these two individuals," said Adams, a former city transit police officer. "Can I say it any clearer? It is the good guys against the bad guys.

"And these bad guys are violent. They carry guns. And the symbol of our public safety, which is that police uniform, they have a total disregard for."

In the other deadly incident, Jason Volz, 54, of the Bronx was pushed onto the tracks inside a subway station in Upper Manhattan on Monday evening, police said. The operator of the oncoming train was unable to stop, and Volz was killed, police said.

The suspect, Carlton McPherson, 24, was arrested on a murder charge, a police spokesperson said. McPherson was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan criminal court on Tuesday.

The suspect "timed it perfectly" with an oncoming train and "pushed with all his might", a witness told the New York Post on Tuesday. "The guy just like flew onto the tracks."

McPherson's older brother, Daquan McPherson, told the Post that Carlton "just got out of the hospital two weeks ago".

"We begged them to keep him, but they said he wasn't a threat to himself or others so they couldn't keep him and they let him go," Daquan said. "In New York City, the mentally ill have two options — either they go to jail or do something that lands them in the newspaper."

Also on Monday, a man was stabbed multiple times on a subway train in a dispute over smoking, police said. A suspect has been arrested.

Agencies contributed to this story.

hengweili@chinadailyusa.com