NYPD Searching For Teen Boy Who Allegedly Shot Tourist In Times Square

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police are searching for a 15-year-old who they say shot a Brazilian tourist in the leg inside a Times Square sporting goods store, then fired twice at a police officer pursuing him through busy midtown streets before ducking into a subway system.

Police identified the teen in the shooting Thursday evening as a resident of a migrant shelter in Manhattan who arrived in New York from Venezuela late last year. He is also considered a suspect in an armed robbery in the Bronx and a separate shooting in Times Square last month, police said.

“The priority right now for the city and its police department and our federal partners is to get this man off the streets,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a news conference Friday afternoon, describing the teenager as “extremely dangerous.”

Police said the shooter, dressed in all white, and two teenage classmates were shoplifting from the sporting goods story shortly after 7 p.m. when they were confronted by a security guard.

After the guard took back the property, the teenager pulled out a .45 caliber handgun and fired at her. The bullet missed the worker, but struck the 37-year-old tourist, who is expected to recover.

The shooter and one of the other teens with him then ran off into the bustling tourist hub. Four blocks away on 47th Street — near a triangular Times Square pedestrian plaza where visitors line up to buy Broadway tickets and snap selfies with the area’s iconic billboards — two officers quickly spotted the pair and took the second person into custody.

The shooter fled toward 6th Avenue with one of the officers giving chase, at one point cutting between buildings. There, he turned and fired at the officer, Chell said.

“Our officer