NYPD: Teen accused of Times Square shooting charged as an adult with attempted murder

A teenager accused by police of shooting a bystander while shoplifting from a Times Square store was charged as an adult with attempted murder, assault and weapons charges. He was arraigned on Saturday afternoon, the Manhattan district attorney's office confirmed.

An NYPD spokesperson said the 15-year-old was charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count each of assault and attempted assault. He is being held without bail until his next court date on Tuesday.

His attorney Adrienne Edward has not yet responded to a call and email from Gothamist seeking comment.

Politicians and pundits have seized on Thursday night's shooting to paint the city’s ongoing migrant influx as a failure of federal border policy as well as New York’s status as a “sanctuary” city. Police said the suspect recently arrived from Venezuela.

The shooting follows an incident last month where several people who police said were migrants were caught on video brawling with officers outside a Times Square migrant shelter. Body camera footage released this week by the Manhattan DA appears to contradict elements of the police narrative around the melee.

NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said last week “a wave of migrant crime” from a small fraction of arrivals has “washed over our city” — a claim echoed by police brass in recent days — though the NYPD has declined to provide statistics around crime specific to the city's migrant community.

As for the bystander shooting, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said on Thursday that the incident unfolded just after 7 p.m., when a female security guard from JD Sports confronted the alleged thief in the lobby of the store on the corner of Broadway and West 42nd Street.

After the guard retrieved the stolen property, Chell said the suspect drew a gun and fired at her once. He missed, but hit a tourist who was also shopping at the store in the leg.

The suspect, who was wearing all white, then fled the store with another teen in a blue jacket. Police caught up with them on 47th Street and Seventh Avenue, and were able to arrest the teen in the blue jacket, Chell said, but the alleged shooter kept running.

Chell said an officer chased him to the alley that runs under the News Corp building on West 47th Street and Sixth Avenue. Once there, Chell said the suspect turned around and shot once at the officer, then ran further and fired a second shot.

The suspect ran into the subway station on West 46th Street and Sixth Avenue, where police have footage of him going onto the tracks before coming out without his white jacket on.

He was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Yonkers on Friday afternoon.

Brittany Kriegstein contributed reporting. This is a developing story and has been updated.