Teen accused in Times Square shooting charged as an adult, described as ‘extreme flight risk,’ authorities say
By Rob Frehse, Mark Morales, Nic F. Anderson, Samantha Beech and John Miller, CNN
(CNN) — A 15-year-old has been arrested and charged as an adult after he shot and injured a Brazilian tourist at a Times Square store and fired at law enforcement officers while fleeing, according to the New York Police Department.
The teen, whom authorities have identified as a migrant from Venezuela who entered the United States last September, is charged with two counts of attempted second-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and second-degree assault in the Thursday night incident, according to a criminal complaint.
New York City detectives and US Marshals apprehended the teen on Friday in Yonkers after following a possible family connection to the area, authorities said.
The shooting unfolded at sneaker store JD Sports. Videos obtained by CNN show the incident began when a store security guard approached the teen and asked him to produce a receipt for a jacket he had in a bag.
When the security guard took the bag from the suspect, the video shows, the suspect reached into his coat for a gun and fired a shot at her – instead striking a 37-year-old woman visiting New York from Brazil, authorities said.
During an ensuing half-mile foot chase with police through Times Square, police say the suspect fired twice at the pursuing officer while running. The officer did not return fire, police said, because the streets were packed with pedestrians.
“Our cops showed great restraint not to fire their weapon into crowded New Yorkers,” NYPD’s Chief of Patrol John Chell said.
The incident occurred just a block from the spot where police confronted a group of men from a migrant shelter on January 27 who they asked to move along, which ended in a scuffle where nearly a dozen young men assaulted the two officers as they tried to arrest one of them, CNN previously reported.
NYPD Police Commissioner Edward Caban referred to the shooting as “way beyond reckless” at a news conference on Friday.
“In the middle of the busiest, most highly-trafficked part of this city, a criminal with a firearm decided to pull the trigger,” Caban said.
“If you think you can attack a member of this department, if you think you can threaten the lives of the very people who keep us safe, if you think you can put others at deadly risk and get away with it, then think again,” he said.
In a bail application read at the teen’s arraignment, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Coulson requested he be remanded.
“The defendant has demonstrated that he is an extreme flight risk and is facing a long sentence of incarceration on this strong case, where he shot an innocent bystander in Times Square and then fired at the police officer who was trying to arrest him,” the bail application said.
The teen is also suspected of involvement in two other New York City incidents last month – a gunpoint robbery in the Bronx and firing a gun on 45th Street and Broadway, Chell said.
CNN has reached out to an attorney listed for the teen for a comment. He is expected to next appear in court on February 13.
CNN’s Sabrina Shulman and Ashley R. Williams contributed to this report.
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