New YorkTeen arrested in connection to Times Square shooting that injured tourist
Fifteen-year-old Venezuelan allegedly shot at security guard and wounded Brazilian tourist before firing at pursuing officer
A 15-year-old accused of shooting a Brazilian tourist in the leg in Times Square on Thursday night, then firing at a police officer while fleeing, was arrested just outside New York City on Friday, police officials said.
Police arrested the teenager at a house that investigators believe may be linked to a family member in Yonkers nearly 24 hours after the shooting. The violence began in a sporting goods store and spilled out on to the bustling streets of midtown Manhattan and one of the world’s most popular tourist locales.
At a press conference announcing the arrest on Friday evening, the New York City police commissioner, Edward Caban, said it was an “actual miracle” that no one was seriously injured in the shooting.
“In the middle of the busiest, most highly trafficked part of this city, a criminal with a firearm decided to pull the trigger,” Caban said.
Hours before, police had identified the suspect as a resident of a migrant shelter in Manhattan who had arrived in New York from Venezuela late last year. He is also considered a suspect in an armed robbery in the Bronx and a separate shooting in Times Square in January, police said.
Police said the shooter, dressed in all white, and two teenage classmates had been shoplifting a jacket from the store shortly after 7pm when they were confronted by a security guard who asked to see a receipt.
When the trio couldn’t produce one, the guard took back the merchandise. That’s when the teenager allegedly pulled out a .45-caliber handgun and fired at her. The bullet missed the worker but grazed a 38-year-old tourist in line to buy a pair of sneakers.
The shooter and one of the other teens with him then ran off into the busy tourist hub. Four blocks away on 47th Street – near a triangular Times Square pedestrian plaza where visitors line up to buy Broadway tickets and snap selfies with the area’s iconic billboards – two officers quickly spotted the pair and took the second person into custody.
The shooter fled toward Sixth Avenue with one of the officers giving chase, at one point cutting between buildings. There, he turned and fired at the officer, police said.
“Our officer draws his weapon. He cannot fire,” the New York City police chief of patrol, John Chell, said at a news conference on Thursday evening. “Too many people around – there’s too many people ducking.”
The teen fired again from under his arm and continued to flee, running into a subway station. Surveillance video showed him going to the tracks and emerging back on the street, Chell said.
It’s unclear whether the teen has an attorney or someone who can speak on his behalf. Prosecutors didn’t immediately respond to a request on Friday evening for attorney contact information.
On Friday morning, police apprehended a third suspect, who is 16. Investigators are still working to determine the role of the two people alleged to have entered the store with the shooter.
Police said they spoke to hundreds of people and obtained strong surveillance photos of the alleged shooter leading up to his arrest on Friday afternoon.
In an interview with NBC, the wounded tourist, Tatiele Ribeiro Lemos, recalled the “scary moment” when she realized she had been shot.
“I started checking myself then looked at my leg and saw blood dripping down, but I was able to stay calm,” she said in Portuguese.
Lemos described her shooting as “an unfortunate incident” that she believes could have happened anywhere, though the US’s level of gun violence is unusually elevated among high-income countries.
She received 13 stitches for the wound at a local hospital, according to the NBC report.
The shooting comes on the heels of another high-profile incident in Times Square involving a brawl between migrants and police officers.
Overall, crime rates have plummeted in New York City since a spike at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of people shot in the city dropped 39% from 2022 to 2023.
Once one of the seediest places in New York, synonymous with pornographic theaters and sex work, Times Square experienced a revitalization in the 1990s that transformed it into one of the city’s most family-friendly destinations. On most evenings, it is packed with tourists and street performers, though it also still attracts pickpockets and hustlers who take advantage of out-of-towners.
Chell said Times Square and New York City remain safe to visitors despite Thursday’s shooting.
“Take a look around you, thousands of people shopping and walking around,” he said.
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