Times Square shooting suspect faces no added charges for being in a 'gun-free zone'

Nearly two years after New York lawmakers banned firearms in Times Square to prevent gun violence in the bustling tourist hub, a 15-year-old accused of shooting and injuring a tourist while shoplifting last week is facing no additional charges for bringing a gun into a so-called “sensitive location.”

A judge ruled Tuesday to keep the teenager in jail as he awaits trial as an adult on several counts of attempted murder, criminal possession of a loaded firearm and assault with intent to cause injury with a weapon, according to court records.

But prosecutors did not charge him with criminal possession of a weapon in a sensitive location — the charge attached to breaking the new law. As of early November, only three people in the entire state faced a top charge of criminal possession of a firearm in a sensitive location, and none of those had been in Times Square, according to state data. At least one other person accused of opening fire in Times Square since the law took effect in September 2022 was also not charged with violating the new law.

While advocates for the law maintain it is a needed deterrent in high-traffic areas, critics say the fact that prosecutors aren’t using it when someone is accused of shooting a gun in Times Square shows the law’s effectiveness is limited.

“Imaginary lines don’t stop criminals from breaking the law,” said Luis Valdes, a national spokesperson for Gun Owners of America, a nonprofit group that has challenged New York’s gun laws in court.

Valdes, a former law enforcement officer, said prosecutors already have the tools they need to charge the defendant in this case with other felonies, including attempted murder, so they don’t need an extra charge for bringing a firearm into a gun-free zone. He called New York’s gun-free zones law “useless.”

Prosecutors say the suspect in the Times Square shooting last Thursday fired at a JD Sports employee who tried to stop him from stealing merchandise and hit a nearby tourist in the leg, then fired at police as he ran away. Doug Cohen, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, declined to comment on why the office did not charge the suspect with criminal possession of a weapon in a sensitive location — a class E felony punishable by up to four years in prison — but noted the defendant already faces more serious charges.

Amy Swearer, a legal scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said it seems like the law’s goal is only to charge people who carry guns for self-defense but don’t actually use them to commit crimes.

“I think that is incoherent,” Swearer said. “You are essentially suggesting that the only reason you would charge someone with this offense is if it's the only offense you could charge them with, which would suggest they probably were not the type of violent perpetrator who was causing problems in the first place.”

But David Pucino, legal director for the Giffords Law Center, a gun violence prevention organization, said even though the Manhattan DA's office did not bring a sensitive location charge in the recent Times Square case, the law still deters people from carrying guns in high-traffic areas.

“If that shoplifter had entered that store without a gun on him, it is likely that there would have been nobody injured in that incident,” he said. “But because there was a gun present, there was the possibility of that escalation and that violence taking place.”

Pucino said prosecutors should charge someone with violating the sensitive locations ban when they bring a firearm to Times Square or any other area on the list. But he said the measure is intended more as a deterrent.

“The important point of these laws is to disincentivize people from bringing guns into those places in the first place,” Pucino said. “And I do think that those laws are having that effect.”

After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down New York’s strict firearm licensing laws in 2022, state legislators passed a package of bills that added new restrictions on gun carrying in the state. The Concealed Carry Improvement Act banned even most permit holders from carrying firearms in schools, at protests and in other areas lawmakers deemed “sensitive locations.” Times Square was included in that list.

Last fall, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office used the law to charge City Councilmember Inna Vernikov after photos and videos circulated on social media showing her with a gun on her hip while she counterprotested at a Brooklyn College demonstration against the war in Gaza. Vernikov has a concealed carry permit that allows her to possess a gun in public but not in sensitive locations, which include college campuses and protests. Prosecutors later dropped the charge because they said her gun was inoperable when she turned it over to police.

New York’s sensitive locations law is currently tied up in litigation after gun owners sued the state, arguing the measure violated their Second Amendment rights. Different judges have struck down and reinstated various aspects of the law as the cases have proceeded through the courts.

Most of the act is currently in effect, with a few exceptions. In December, a federal appeals court ruled gun owners with concealed carry permits can bring guns onto private property unless the owner hangs a sign saying otherwise. The state attorney general’s office is continuing to defend the law in court.