NYPD: Multiple teenagers shot in separate Manhattan shootings

Police were investigating two Manhattan shootings on Tuesday as potentially connected, gang-motivated incidents, the NYPD said.

A 16-year-old student was shot near Harlem Renaissance High School in East Harlem just a few hours after another teenager was shot multiple times near an Upper West Side high school — a block away from Martin Luther King High School, where he is a student.

"Right now, we are proceeding like they're all connected," said NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell. "Why do I say that? The proximity, geography around schools, age of victims and now we confirm one incident, this incident here, it's gang-motivated."

Police said just before 10 a.m. Tuesday, a 17-year-old male was shot multiple times in the abdomen at West 68th Street and Amsterdam Avenue — a stone’s throw from Lincoln Center — and was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Chell said the victim is in stable condition.

Officials also said three males were suspected in the second shooting in East Harlem. A 27-year-old bystander was also shot in the incident there, police said.

At a briefing after the first shooting on the Upper West Side on Tuesday afternoon, Chell said the suspect hailed a cab and was stopped by authorities near the scene of the shooting. A handgun was recovered from the suspect, police said.

Chell commended members of the community for their urgency around the situation.

“They called 911 quickly, they gave great descriptions, they were involved,” Chell said. “And by virtue of that, our [20th Precinct] officers responded quickly, grabbed the cab, took the shooter off the street, and a firearm was recovered.”

Police are still searching for other people involved in the incident. Chell said the shooting took place as a group of four to five people were having a physical altercation.

While the shooting was off campus, the school went into a brief “shelter-in-place” response that has since been lifted, the city’s Department of Education confirmed.

Mayor Eric Adams was headed to the scene on Tuesday morning but his office said he would not take questions.

Multiple shootings have occurred outside of city schools in recent months. Last month, two students and an adult were shot and injured during a fight outside Williamsburg Charter High School in Brooklyn. A couple of teenagers were shot near another high school less than a mile away during the same week.

Youth gun violence has also climbed in the last five years.

This story has been updated to reflect new information from the NYPD.

Jessica Gould contributed reporting.