New York City officials say detectives are seeking the suspect in the shooting of an innocent bystander who was visiting Times Square with his family over the weekend.
“This is a place that is so precious and so important to our city, it has to be safe,” the mayor said as he announced new safety protocols.
The mayor announced a new safety plan, called the Times Square Safety Action Plan, which includes an additional 50 police officers, both uniformed and undercover, in the Times Square area, while also increasing the enforcement of illegal vending related to gun violence. The plan put in place will be active immediately.
“After this shooting and the shooting that we had a couple of weeks ago, it is important that we put a lot more of a police presence over there,” New York Police Department Chief of Department Rodney Harrison said during the briefing.
Samuel Poulin, a 21-year-old man from upstate New York who was visiting Manhattan with his family, was struck in the back by a stray bullet and was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Center with non-life-threatening injuries.
Harrison noted at the briefing that the shooting occurred after a group of street vendors selling CDs got into an argument, adding that the information is preliminary and officials are still working to “get to the bottom of” what exactly happened.
He added they are “making sure we’re not just having the omnipresence out there, but we’re going to make sure we engage the individuals that are part of this aggressive solicitation, aggressive panhandling.”
