Police released surveillance video of the suspected gunman who shot a 58-year-old man on West 31st Street and Seventh Avenue around 5:45 p.m. Monday during the evening commute.
On Tuesday, the innocent bystander said he has been released from the hospital and is doing "just fine."
Authorities have vowed to catch the man responsible, but say he is not in custody yet.
Det. Nicholas White was working a block away and knew when he heard a loud boom it was more than just construction.
Hero cop speaks out after aiding man shot outside Penn Station
He ran to the victim from New Jersey and used a tourniquet to stop the bleeding until paramedics showed up.
"He was calm, he was calm, at first he didn't know he was shot so then when I did my examination I realized he was shot and he was just in mild pain surprisingly, it could've been much worse," White said.
Police say the man caught on surveillance video got into a fight moments before the shooting with someone else inside the stations.
The fight is believed to have been about food and that man was his intended target -- not the man hit in the leg who was waiting for a cab at the time of the shooting.
"I was happy that I was in the place where I could be of some help to someone," White said.
Dozens of police surrounded Penn Station on Tuesday, one of the main gateways to New York in what is turning out to be a violence summer in the city.
So far this year there have been 983 shootings citywide which is a big increase from the same time period in 2019, the year before the pandemic started, when there were 641.
Police have released the surveillance images with the hope that someone knows the man with the red backpack.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea blamed the city's "soft on crime" approach for the violence, but they have not released the suspect's name yet so it's unclear if he has been in an out of jail or not.
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