Two women and a child were injured Saturday afternoon in Times Square, New York, in a shooting just before 5:00 p.m. local time (9:00 p.m. GMT) at the intersection of 7th Avenue and 44th Street. Police cordoned off the area for several hours.
The three victims – a four-year-old in her stroller, shot in the leg as her family bought toys, a 46-year-old woman affected in the foot, and a 23-year-old tourist from the state of Rhode Island affected in the leg – were hospitalized in a Manhattan hospital, and their lives were not in danger, said New York police chief Dermot Shea.
The three victims – who apparently did not know each other – happened to find themselves in the middle of an argument between “two to four men”. At least one of them drew a gun and fired.
No arrests had been made by early evening. Police called for witnesses and released surveillance camera footage of a wanted man.
More and more shootings
Dermot Shea denounced insufficient laws to fight the growing number of firearms illegally circulating in America’s largest metropolis, and stop repeat offenders.
“How many children have to be reached before we realize that bad policies have harmful consequences?” he said, recalling that two people suspected of a shooting that killed a baby in July 2020 in Brooklyn had just been arrested.
“Fortunately, these innocent passers-by are in stable condition,” Mayor Bill de Blasio also tweeted. “The perpetrators of this violence are wanted and the police will bring them to justice. The flow of illegal weapons arriving in New York must stop,” he added.
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According to a recent report by the Times Square Alliance, the neighborhood merchant association, the area – one of New York’s tourist hotspots – recorded 25 violent crimes in the first quarter of 2021, up from 17 in the same period of 2020.
At the end of March, the video recording of an assault on a sexagenarian of Asian origin in the neighborhood had shocked. A man with a heavy judicial record, who lived in a hotel near Times Square that had become a reception center for the homeless, had been arrested and charged.
The violence comes as the city plans to lift most restrictions due to the pandemic on May 19, and to launch a campaign to revive tourism in June. The theaters, which are the main attraction of the district, must reopen from September 14.
Shootings have increased sharply in New York City since the summer of 2020 and the movement against racial inequalities. The reasons for this increase as the police reforms to be initiated are controversial, six weeks before the primary for the municipal election.
According to the latest official statistics, New York recorded 149 shootings in April, against 56 in April 2020 (+ 166%). Crime in general was up 30% over the same period.
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