Early Saturday morning chaos erupted in Times Square as a shooter fired into a crowd, leaving three people wounded.. The shooting occurred near West 44th Street and Seventh Avenue around 1:20 a.m., shortly after officers arrived on the scene, they found two men, ages 19 and 65, and an 18-year-old woman with gunshot injuries, all of whom were transported to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition, an incident confirmed by the NYPD and reported by Gothamist.
The sequence of events that led to the shooting appears to have stemmed from a dispute inside the Raising Cane's restaurant; this developed into a fight involving a group of teens wearing hoods and eventually escalated after spilling out onto the streets, witnesses described to CBS News New York, and that's when the shots rang out. A 19-year-old male was shot in the foot, an 18-year-old female suffered a graze wound to the neck, the 65-year-old victim was shot in the leg; this is according to police data.
NYPD officials have the alleged shooter, a 17-year-old suspect, in custody, although as of the last reports, no charges have been formally filed. The gun involved in the incident was recovered at the scene; however, it remains unclear whether the suspect and the victims were acquainted before the altercation that lead to the shooting.
Despite this violent incident, police data indicates that shootings in New York City are nearing record lows this year, a prevailing trend following a marked increase during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. The motive behind the Times Square shooting is not known, yet police have suggested there was a dispute between the 19-year-old and the alleged shooter, according to information disclosed by NYPD and reported by Gothamist.
