NEW YORK (AP) — New York Metropolis police are looking for a 15-year-old who they are saying shot a Brazilian vacationer within the leg inside a Instances Sq. sporting items retailer, then fired twice at a police officer pursuing him by busy midtown streets earlier than ducking right into a subway system.
Police recognized the teenager within the capturing Thursday night as a resident of a migrant shelter in Manhattan who arrived in New York from Venezuela late final 12 months. He’s additionally thought-about a suspect in an armed theft within the Bronx and a separate capturing in Instances Sq. final month, police stated.
“The precedence proper now for town and its police division and our federal companions is to get this man off the streets,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell stated at a information convention Friday afternoon, describing {the teenager} as “extraordinarily harmful.”
Police stated the shooter, wearing all white, and two teenage classmates had been shoplifting from the sporting items story shortly after 7 p.m. after they had been confronted by a safety guard.
After the guard took again the property, {the teenager} pulled out a .45 caliber handgun and fired at her. The bullet missed the employee, however struck the 37-year-old vacationer, who is predicted to recuperate.
The shooter and one of many different teenagers with him then ran off into the bustling vacationer hub. 4 blocks away on forty seventh Road — close to a triangular Instances Sq. pedestrian plaza the place guests line as much as purchase Broadway tickets and snap selfies with the world’s iconic billboards — two officers rapidly noticed the pair and took the second particular person into custody.
The shooter fled towards sixth Avenue with one of many officers giving chase, at one level chopping between buildings. There, he turned and fired on the officer, Chell stated.
“Our officer attracts his weapon. He can not fireplace,” he stated at a information convention Thursday night. “Too many individuals round, there’s too many individuals ducking.”
The teenager fired once more from underneath his arm and continued to flee, working right into a subway station, the place he was final seen. Surveillance video confirmed him going to the tracks and rising again onto the road, Chell stated.
On Friday morning, police apprehended a 3rd suspect, who’s 16. Investigators are nonetheless working to find out the position of the 2 folks alleged to have entered the shop with the shooter.
Chell stated the shooter discarded his jacket whereas fleeing. Information footage confirmed police tape surrounding a white jacket and baseball cap mendacity on the street throughout from Radio Metropolis Music Corridor.
The capturing prompted an enormous police presence and search that briefly closed streets within the space. A reward of as a lot as $10,000 is being provided for details about the shooter, police stated.
The capturing comes on the heels of one other high-profile incident in Instances Sq. involving a brawl between migrants and police officers.
Total, crime charges have plummeted in New York Metropolis since a spike on the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The variety of folks shot within the metropolis dropped 39% from 2022 to 2023.
As soon as one of many seediest locations in New York, synonymous with pornographic theaters and intercourse work, Instances Sq. skilled a revitalization within the Nineties that remodeled it into one of many metropolis’s most family-friendly locations. On most evenings, it’s filled with vacationers and avenue performers, although it additionally nonetheless attracts pickpockets and hustlers who reap the benefits of out-of-towners.
Chell stated Instances Sq. remained secure to guests.
“Have a look round you, hundreds of individuals procuring and strolling round,” he stated. “We’re nonetheless the most secure metropolis on this planet.”
