Police on Friday released an image of a gun-toting shoplifter who shot a Times Square tourist with a bullet meant for a security guard, then shot at police as he tried to escape, police said.
The shooter, believed to be in his teens, was with two other teenagers inside JD Sports on the corner of W. 42nd St. and Broadway around 7 p.m. Thursday when a female security guard stopped them from leaving the store with a pair of shoes they were intending to steal, cops said.
That’s when the baby-faced teen pulled a gun and turned, firing at the guard. The security guard ducked and the bullet hit a 37-year-old woman shopping nearby, according to a witness and police.
Police released surveillance video images of a suspected shoplifter who shot a tourist at a Times Square clothing store shot while trying to hit a a security guard Thursday. (NYPD)
“I was standing right next to her,” Lone Hanson, 62, a tourist from Denmark, told The Daily News Thursday. “She was just shopping with her girlfriend. I heard a boom and she was shot.”
The woman suffered a gunshot wound to the left leg. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
“She was standing there saying, ‘Help, Help,’” said a witness who did not want to be named. “I took her shirt off of her and tied it to her leg.”
Police respond after a woman was shot inside the JD Sports store on Broadway and 41st Street in Times Square on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
“I was asking her if everything was OK and she said she doesn’t speak English,” the woman added.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said the gunman and a 15-year-old boy in a blue jacket ran out of the store towards W. 47th St. Cops nearby grabbed the teen in the blue jacket but the gunman kept running down the street.
“Midway down 47th St., there is a cut between the Fox buildings,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a presser near the scene late Thursday. “The perpetrator goes in there, he fires one time at our officer. Our officer draws his weapon but he cannot fire. There are too many people around.”
Medics remove a woman wounded after a shooting inside the JD Sports store in Times Square on Feb. 8, 2024. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
The teen kept running and fired a second shot at the officer from under his armpit, Chell said. No one was hit.
“Again, our officer didn’t return fire,” Chell said.
“We have numerous resources scouring this area looking for that male,” Chell said. “He shot at our cops not once, but twice and also shot an innocent female in the leg.”
A woman was shot inside the JD Sports store on Broadway and W. 41st St. in Times Square on Feb. 8, 2024. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
The teen taken into custody was released a few hours later after police determined he was not involved, cops said.
The gunman was last seen wearing a white t-shirt and white pants. Cops are offering $10,000 for information that will lead to his apprehension and conviction.
Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.