NEW YORK CITY, NY – Gunshots rang out in New York City’s Times Square at about 4:55 pm Friday night. Police officers in the area a block away immediately responded. Three people were shot including a 4-year-old girl from Brooklyn who was shot in the leg.
A 23-year-old tourist from Rhode Island who wanted to visit the Statue of Liberty, but came to Times Square instead because the national monument is currently closed was also shot. A 43-year-old New Jersey woman was the third victim.
“How many more kids need to be shot before we realize bad policies have consequences,” Commission Dermot F. Shea said at a press conference. “And we need action and we need policies regarding laws that have consequences. We have gone over this many times and it has to stop.”
Shea said the young child was buying toys at the time she was shot.
“We’ve spoken about this ad nauseum,” he said. “When is this going to end? How many more people are going to be injured or pushed in front of a train, or in this case a young 4-year-old toy shopping with her family.”
Police are asking anyone with information to call them. Times Square was shut down while police investigated the shooting. All three victims are not known to each other and it is suspected that they were shot at random. Police released photos of the suspect, a black male wearing a white and black shirt.
New York City Police later released a video of the man suspected in the shooting.