Suspected gunman in Times Square shooting arrested in Florida – NBC 62

NEW YORK – The man suspected in the Times Square shooting Saturday night, where two women and a 4-year-old girl were injured, was pulled over in the parking lot of a McDonald’s in Starke, Florida, while in a vehicle, according to reported the NYPD during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

Officials say 31-year-old Farrakhan Muhammad was with who they believe is his girlfriend, and who was identified, according to court documents obtained by our sister network NBC 4, as Kristine Jamaica Vergara who has an address in Florida. Vergara was interrogated and initially denied having knowledge that the suspect was fleeing justice, the document says. However, he would later have admitted that he was helping the fugitive escape from the authorities, the document details. He has not received charges.

The two reportedly left New York City after the shooting, according to a senior law enforcement official, although it is unclear whether the woman knew he was wanted after the Times Square shooting. No further details about his arrest were immediately available.

According to New York City Police detectives during the investigation they used surveillance camera footage that showed the alleged gunman leaving Times Square after the shooting and heading to a hotel in West 42nd Street. There he changed his clothes and was seen dating his girlfriend, a senior police official said.

The two are believed to be heading south and there was a tip Tuesday that the duo were in North Carolina, where they apparently stopped at a Walmart to buy food for two dogs traveling with them, police said. Following that, new information emerged Wednesday that Muhammad was in the Starke area and local detectives and U.S. marshals were monitoring the community, authorities said.

He was arrested in Starke around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday after US Marshals spotted him at the McDonald’s, authorities said. They described his arrest as “without incident”.

Muhammad and Vergara are currently being held at the Bradford County Jail and the investigation continues. The dark van he and his girlfriend were driving was towed to a seizure yard for further investigation, authorities said.

NYPD officials said their investigation into the motive for the shooting was ongoing. Muhammad’s brother confirmed to the Police that he was the target of the attack. The weapon used in the shooting has not been recovered.

The suspect would be extradited to New York City after the trial.

Police had been searching for Muhammad for days in connection with the shooting in the heart of Manhattan, one of the busiest and most touristy areas of the city: Times Square.

Police noted that Muhammad was allegedly trying to shoot his brother after an argument at the time, but failed, injuring the three innocent victims.

All three victims are still in recovery. Each, a 4-year-old Hispanic girl from Brooklyn, a 43-year-old Hispanic woman from New Jersey, and a 23-year-old girl visiting the city for Mother’s Day from Rhode Island suffered non-life threatening gunshot wounds. .

New Jersey victim Marcela Aldana, a Mexican mother, described to Telemundo 47 the moment of the shooting that injured his left foot when he was shopping with his daughter. Aldana expects the bullet to be removed from her foot on Thursday, according to doctors it did not affect her bone.

“Suddenly we heard arguments and screams, and suddenly we heard the shots and at that moment we ran,” said Marcela in a conversation with Telemundo 47. “I fell because I felt that they shot me and when I saw I had a shot in the foot and no longer she could move forward, she couldn’t walk and she was in pain and terrified because more gunshots were heard, ”said the mother as she relived the moments of terror during the weekend.

For her part, the officer who ran to help the 4-year-old girl, identified as Skye Martínez, described the minor as a strong person. “He didn’t even cry once, except when we were putting the tourniquet on him. He screamed because it’s so painful,” Officer Alyssa Vogel told the New York Post. Videos from the Police body camera show the heroic moment when the uniformed woman made a tourniquet to the little girl so that she would not bleed and ran to an ambulance.

For her part, the other victim, Wendy Magrinat, who was with her family at the time of the shooting, also described what happened, but in his case they would not remove the bullet from his leg because the doctors pointed out that it could be dangerous. Magrinat said he heard a fight nearby and the next thing he knew he was shot.

“Suddenly I heard someone yelling in an unpleasant tone. I told my husband ‘let’s move on’ because I had our 2-year-old son on his hands,” she told our sister network NBC New York. “The same moment I told him that, the shots increased. I walked around a bit and then I started screaming for help.”

New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea confirmed that the three victims were not the target of the shooting and were not related to each other.

“How many children do we have to shoot before we take this seriously? We just closed the murder case of a one-year-old this week,” Shea said, referring toThe arrest of two suspected Brooklyn gang members in the summer 2020 shooting that claimed the life of a baby.

The shooting in Times Square happened at about 4:58 p.m. Saturday, at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and W 44th Street, and they were in uniform near the area of ​​the shooting.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who condemned the senseless shooting and later made the City of Police Department New York will intensify patrols in the area, said this week that the daylight shooting at a high-profile location would not deter visitors from returning to the city as the coronavirus pandemic subsides.

“Ultimately, people want to come to this city,” said the Democratic mayor. “It’s an overwhelmingly safe city, when you look at New York City compared to cities across the country, around the world.”

De Blasio said tourists have already started to return. “I thought it would be the summer before we see that kind of comeback,” he said. “It is happening now.”

On the other hand, New York City mayoral candidates responded to the incident and gave their views on the issue of gun violence just weeks before the primary elections.

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