Teenage suspect in Times Square shooting arrested in Yonkers: NYPD

Police said Friday federal and local authorities in Yonkers arrested the suspect in a shooting and shoplifting incident in Times Square that injured a bystander and sent officers scrambling to find the alleged shooter Thursday night.

The arrest came just minutes after NYPD officials held a press conference in Times Square announcing the suspect as a 15-year-old boy whose last known address matched the location of the Stratford Arms Hotel on the Upper West Side, which has been used as an emergency migrant shelter for months.

Police said the boy immigrated from Venezuela last September and that the gun used in Thursday’s shooting was a .45 handgun, though they did not say how he obtained it.

Police also said he was a suspect in another recent Times Square shooting, on Jan. 25, where a similar handgun was used but no one was struck, and a suspect in a Jan. 27 armed robbery in the Bronx.

At around 7 p.m. Thursday, the boy and two other people were trying to steal a jacket from the JD Sports store at Broadway and West 42nd Street, according to NYPD Assistant Chief of Detectives Jason Savino.

When a female security guard asked the alleged shoplifters for a receipt, the boy shot at her but missed and hit a 38-year-old tourist from Brazil who was in line to buy a pair of sneakers, Savino said at a news briefing Friday evening. The tourist was hospitalized in stable condition and has since been released, according to the NYPD.

Police said officers outside the store arrested one person in the group and began to chase the suspected shooter. He then turned and fired twice at the officers, who did not fire back as they were “well aware of the dangers of firing a gun on a crowded, busy street,” said Savino.

The suspect allegedly ran into a subway station on West 46th Street and 6th Avenue and was caught on surveillance video going on the tracks before exiting the subway without his jacket on.

The boy will “likely” be charged with attempted murder of a police officer, according to NYPD Assistant Commissioner of Public Information Carlos Nieves. He said police did not know whether the teen would be charged as an adult or whether he had been assigned an attorney.

The boy will be detained in a Manhattan precinct overnight Friday, according to officials.

NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban denounced the shooting, saying the boy acted “without a single thought to who he might hit or who he might kill.”

Police interviewed hundreds of people and reviewed photos of the boy, eventually tracking him down at a Yonkers address where he may have family, NYPD officials said. His mother was present for the arrest, according to Nieves.

The NYPD said the investigation, which is still ongoing, involved the Yonkers Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Regional Task Force. A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service said a release on the incident would be forthcoming Friday night.

At an earlier news conference Friday, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell cast the shooting as part of a “trend in crimes” involving migrants in the city. His comments followed a controversial incident in Times Square late last month in which prosecutors have indicted seven people in an alleged assault on two NYPD officers — though police body camera footage released late Thursday by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office showed events leading up to the incident that have complicated law enforcement officials’ accounts.

“Groups of migrants — I say some, not all — are affecting crime in our city, more so now than when they first got here,” Chell said, referencing recent robberies involving mopeds, pickpockets in Times Square and incidents of retail theft. “But I want to be clear here again. We don't care what you are, what your status is.”

The NYPD has declined to share data on how many crimes are connected to recent migrants. Officers do not ask people about their immigration status when making an arrest, but the department has access to information about the date someone arrived in the U.S., NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard previously told Gothamist.

“Migrant crimes still represent a small amount of violent crime,” he said, adding that the numbers are disproportionately lower than crimes committed by longer-term residents.