Eric Adams Ran on Making New York Safer. A Subway Killing Poses a Test.

The mayor, who made improving public safety a theme of his campaign, is dealing with the fallout from a high-profile death in Times Square.

Not long after winning New York City’s Democratic primary, Eric Adams had a quick answer to the question of how his potential mayoralty should be judged.

“Public safety,” Mr. Adams said in one interview last summer, asked to define success in a first term. “That’s the prerequisite to prosperity.”

Mr. Adams is now New York’s 110th mayor, and two weeks into his tenure, a stunning crime has illustrated vividly the challenges he faces in delivering on his central campaign promise of building a safer and more just New York.