NEW YORK (AP) — A 15-year-old accused of taking pictures a Brazilian vacationer within the leg in Occasions Sq. Thursday evening, then firing at a police officer whereas fleeing, was arrested simply outdoors of New York Metropolis on Friday, police officers mentioned.
{The teenager} was taken into custody at a residential home that police consider could also be linked to a member of the family in Yonkers practically 24 hours after the taking pictures that started in a sporting items retailer and spilled out onto the bustling streets of Midtown Manhattan.
At a press convention asserting the arrest Friday night, New York Metropolis Police Commissioner Edward Caban mentioned it was an “precise miracle” that nobody was critically injured within the taking pictures.
“In the midst of the busiest, most extremely trafficked a part of this metropolis, a prison with a firearm determined to tug the set off,” Caban mentioned.
Hours earlier than, police recognized the suspect 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 taking pictures in Occasions Sq. final month, police mentioned.
Police mentioned the shooter, wearing all white, and two teenage classmates had been shoplifting a jacket from the shop shortly after 7 p.m. after they had been confronted by a safety guard who requested to see a receipt.
When the trio couldn’t produce one, the guard took again the merchandise. That’s when {the teenager} allegedly pulled out a .45 caliber handgun and fired at her. The bullet missed the employee however grazed a 38-year-old vacationer in line to purchase a pair of sneakers.
The shooter and one of many different teenagers with him then ran off into the busy vacationer hub. 4 blocks away on forty seventh Road — close to a triangular Occasions Sq. pedestrian plaza the place guests line as much as purchase Broadway tickets and snap selfies with the world’s iconic billboards — two officers shortly 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, police mentioned.
“Our officer attracts his weapon. He can’t hearth,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell mentioned at a information convention Thursday night. “Too many individuals round, there’s too many individuals ducking.”
The teenager fired once more from below his arm and continued to flee, working right into a subway station. Surveillance video confirmed him going to the tracks and rising again onto the road, Chell mentioned.
It’s unclear if the teenager has an lawyer or somebody who can converse on his behalf. Prosecutors mentioned they’re normally not recognized till the arraignment, which hasn’t occurred but.
Police mentioned they spoke to a whole lot of individuals and obtained sturdy surveillance photographs of the alleged shooter main as much as his arrest Friday afternoon.
In an interview with NBC, the vacationer, Tatiele Ribeiro Lemos, recalled the “scary second” when she realized she had been shot.
“I began checking myself then checked out my leg and noticed blood dripping down, however I used to be in a position to keep calm,” she mentioned in Portuguese. “I consider this was simply an unlucky incident, it may have occurred wherever on the earth.”
She obtained 13 stitches for the wound at an area hospital, in line with the NBC report.
The taking pictures comes on the heels of one other high-profile incident in Occasions Sq. involving a brawl between migrants and law enforcement officials.
Total, crime charges have plummeted in New York Metropolis since a spike on the top 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, Occasions Sq. skilled a revitalization within the Nineteen 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 benefit from out-of-towners.
Chell mentioned Occasions Sq. stays protected to guests.
“Have a look round you, 1000’s of individuals purchasing and strolling round,” he mentioned. “We’re nonetheless the most secure metropolis on the earth.”
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Related Press author Cedar Attanasio contributed to this report.
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This story has been up to date to appropriate the taking pictures sufferer’s age. She is 38, not 37, as authorities beforehand acknowledged.
