Thursday, 28 Mar 2024

3 Shot, Including a 4-Year-Old, in Times Square, Police Say

Two women and a 4-year-old girl were shot in Times Square on Saturday afternoon, the police said.

The women and the child, who were not related, were taken to Bellevue Hospital Center and were expected to survive, the police said.

No arrests have been made in the shooting, which occurred at about 4:55 p.m. near Seventh Avenue and West 44th Street.

The New York Times

“Thankfully these innocent bystanders are in stable condition,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter. “The perpetrators of this senseless violence are being tracked down and the NYPD will bring them to justice. The flood of illegal guns into our city must stop.”

The New York Police Department said the public should expect a heavy police presence in Times Square and traffic delays in the surrounding area.

By about 6:40 p.m., nearby streets were fully barricaded to traffic and most pedestrians. Shops and restaurants at the center of Times Square, like Starbucks, Gap and Taco Bell, had emptied out.

An eerie silence fell over most of the blocks in the immediate area, interrupted only by conversations among the dozens of officers who stood from 42nd Street up to at least 47th Street.

Most of the initial scenes of confusion and fear that had spread on social media in the minutes after the shooting had dissipated.

The shooting came amid a rise in gun violence in New York City that has been sustained since early in the pandemic.

At least 463 people have been shot in the city this year, according to police data, up from 239 over the same period in 2019 and 259 in 2020. The city was largely shut down, with fewer pedestrians on the street, at the start of the pandemic last year.

The shooting was a rarity for the immediate area around Times Square. Much of the gun violence has been concentrated elsewhere.

Videos and pictures posted on social media after the shooting showed a helicopter circling above the neighborhood and officers combing through a restaurant. The Broadway show “Come From Away” said on Twitter that “everyone in the Schoenfeld, Golden & Booth theaters are all safe.”

Times Square, famous for its throngs of tourists, had become almost vacant during the pandemic last year. But it has recently started to attract crowds as the city has loosened restrictions, vaccinations have increased and coronavirus case numbers have fallen.

Source: Read Full Article

Related Posts