- Aug 3, 2009
- 6,797
- 10
A plainclothes police sergeant fatally shot a 25-year-old man on Thursday morning outside the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square after confronting the man,who he believed was involved in a fraud scheme to intimidate tourists into buying CDs, the authorities said. The slain man was armed with a loaded Mac-10semiautomatic pistol and had fired first, the police said.
A major police response followed the shooting, which occurred around 11:15 a.m. at 46th Street and Broadway, a tourist-packed intersection, during a weekdaymorning when the streets were filled with shoppers.
Emergency medical workers took the man to St.Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where he died. The man was not identified, but the authorities said he lived in the Bronx and was wanted onassault and disorderly conduct charges.
A second man, his brother, was held by the police and being questioned at the Midtown South Precinct, the police said.
Police Department Authorities said the gun was reported stolen Oct. 28.
On the man's body, police found a business card for a Virginia gun dealer, Gary A. Lewis, who runs Gary's Guns & Transfers in Manakin-Sabot, apair of villages northwest of Richmond.
Hand-written on the back of the card, the police said, were these words: "I just finished watching 'The Last Dragon.' I feel sorry for a cop ifhe think I'm getting into his paddy wagon." The gun had been reported stolen in Richmond on Oct. 28, the police said.
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly andPaul J. Browne, the chief policespokesman, offered a detailed account of the shooting.
They said the sergeant - who is 41 years, with 17 years on the force - was ordinarily assigned to a detail charged with enforcing regulations governingstreet vendors and peddlers, but had been detached to work on a special crime-fighting unit.
On Thursday morning, the sergeant noticed two men who he believed had been responsible for a fraud scheme to intimidate visitors: They would first approachthe tourists, then ask them their names, write their names on the CDs and then demand payment of $10.
The sergeant confronted the men outside of 1515 Broadway, south of 45th Street, asking them for a tax stamp that would demonstrate that they had the rightto sell CDs.
One of the men ran north, then west on 45th Street and onto the driveway of the Marriott, toward 46th Street. The sergeant gave chase, ordered the man tostop. Instead, the man pulled out a gun. Shots were exchanged: the man fired two rounds, while sergeant fired four.
John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times A gun and weapons magazine were recovered at the scene.
The man's semiautomatic weapon was recovered at the scene, and investigators quickly determined that one round had shattered a store window and that asecond was fired toward the box office of the Marriott Marquis Theater. A third round lay on the ground, evidently because the gun had jammed. Inside theweapon were 27 live rounds of ammunition.
Shannon Maggio, 32, a visitor from New Orleans, was on the 16th floor of the nearby Edison Hotel in a room facing the Marriott, with both windows open, whenshe heard yelling, and then an eruption of gunfire.
"I heard it clear as day," she said. "I'd never heard a gunshot before, but I knew it was a gunshot. Pow-pow-pow-pow - just like that.Then I heard a guy yell. Then sirens." She added: "I froze. My hair stood on end."
The first 911 call about the shooting came in at 11:19 a.m., and emergency workers arrived a minute later, the authorities said. Preliminary accountsindicated that the shooting occurred at the entrance to the garage, which is under the hotel. A street-level driveway runs under the hotel the length of theblock between 45th and 46th Streets.
The hotel was sealed off after the shooting, and the police shut the entirety of Broadway from 45th to 46th Street to both traffic and pedestrians, and muchof 46th Street to the east and west, as well.
"Right now, the police are on property," Kathleen Duffy, a spokeswoman for the hotel, which has 1,900 rooms and is one of the city's largesthotels, said in a phone interview from outside the hotel. "It's our understanding it didn't involve any of our guests or any of ourassociates."
The intersection of 46th and Broadway is in the heart of Times Square. The hotel - and a giant Bank of America illuminated sign - is at the southwesterncorner; a large new American Eagle Outfitters store is to the northwest; Father Duffy Square (and the TKTS booth that sells discounted Broadway tickets) is tothe northeast; and a traffic island is to the southeast.
In the shooting's aftermath, there did not appear to be significant alarm, at least as judged by tourists who, far from avoiding the area, seemed topush forward to get a view of what had happened.
Emer Rooney, 33, a visitor from Ireland on the last day of a trip to New York, walked with a friend from a nearby hotel to take pictures of the scene. Shesaid she had never felt unsafe in New York. "I actually feel it's very safe," she said. "Look at all the police officers." She citedthe shooting, in fact, as one of the more exciting moments of her trip, including recovering lost luggage at the Port Authority Bus Terminal and gettingtickets to the musical "Wicked."
A tourist from Australia, Suzanne Davis, 42, stopped to take images with a video recorder. "It's my first day in New York, so it makes very realwhat you see in the movies," she said.
Nearby, vendors continued to sell tickets for double-decker bus tours.
The people who sell the CDs are well known to the businesses and street vendors in the Times Square area. "They give people the CD, sign it, then makepeople feel obligated to buy it," said Greg Carroll, who does sidewalk promotion for a comedy club. "Normally they just stay on the corner and askpeople, but sometimes they do get in people's faces."
Employees at Embassy Electronics said they had called the police repeatedly for what they described as sellers harassing tourists outside their store."First they give it to you like its free, then when they sign it, they ask for money," said one employee who declined to give his name.
Other people on the street expressed more sympathy. "They're good guys, I see them all the time," said James Evans, who helps run a table forthe United Homeless Organization - which has itself been accused ofbeing a sham - on Seventh Avenue and 46th Street. "All of them do the same thing, they give them a CD and then they ask for adonation."
"Nothing in life is free," he added.
A major police response followed the shooting, which occurred around 11:15 a.m. at 46th Street and Broadway, a tourist-packed intersection, during a weekdaymorning when the streets were filled with shoppers.
Emergency medical workers took the man to St.Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where he died. The man was not identified, but the authorities said he lived in the Bronx and was wanted onassault and disorderly conduct charges.
A second man, his brother, was held by the police and being questioned at the Midtown South Precinct, the police said.
On the man's body, police found a business card for a Virginia gun dealer, Gary A. Lewis, who runs Gary's Guns & Transfers in Manakin-Sabot, apair of villages northwest of Richmond.
Hand-written on the back of the card, the police said, were these words: "I just finished watching 'The Last Dragon.' I feel sorry for a cop ifhe think I'm getting into his paddy wagon." The gun had been reported stolen in Richmond on Oct. 28, the police said.
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly andPaul J. Browne, the chief policespokesman, offered a detailed account of the shooting.
They said the sergeant - who is 41 years, with 17 years on the force - was ordinarily assigned to a detail charged with enforcing regulations governingstreet vendors and peddlers, but had been detached to work on a special crime-fighting unit.
On Thursday morning, the sergeant noticed two men who he believed had been responsible for a fraud scheme to intimidate visitors: They would first approachthe tourists, then ask them their names, write their names on the CDs and then demand payment of $10.
The sergeant confronted the men outside of 1515 Broadway, south of 45th Street, asking them for a tax stamp that would demonstrate that they had the rightto sell CDs.
One of the men ran north, then west on 45th Street and onto the driveway of the Marriott, toward 46th Street. The sergeant gave chase, ordered the man tostop. Instead, the man pulled out a gun. Shots were exchanged: the man fired two rounds, while sergeant fired four.
The man's semiautomatic weapon was recovered at the scene, and investigators quickly determined that one round had shattered a store window and that asecond was fired toward the box office of the Marriott Marquis Theater. A third round lay on the ground, evidently because the gun had jammed. Inside theweapon were 27 live rounds of ammunition.
Shannon Maggio, 32, a visitor from New Orleans, was on the 16th floor of the nearby Edison Hotel in a room facing the Marriott, with both windows open, whenshe heard yelling, and then an eruption of gunfire.
"I heard it clear as day," she said. "I'd never heard a gunshot before, but I knew it was a gunshot. Pow-pow-pow-pow - just like that.Then I heard a guy yell. Then sirens." She added: "I froze. My hair stood on end."
The first 911 call about the shooting came in at 11:19 a.m., and emergency workers arrived a minute later, the authorities said. Preliminary accountsindicated that the shooting occurred at the entrance to the garage, which is under the hotel. A street-level driveway runs under the hotel the length of theblock between 45th and 46th Streets.
The hotel was sealed off after the shooting, and the police shut the entirety of Broadway from 45th to 46th Street to both traffic and pedestrians, and muchof 46th Street to the east and west, as well.
"Right now, the police are on property," Kathleen Duffy, a spokeswoman for the hotel, which has 1,900 rooms and is one of the city's largesthotels, said in a phone interview from outside the hotel. "It's our understanding it didn't involve any of our guests or any of ourassociates."
The intersection of 46th and Broadway is in the heart of Times Square. The hotel - and a giant Bank of America illuminated sign - is at the southwesterncorner; a large new American Eagle Outfitters store is to the northwest; Father Duffy Square (and the TKTS booth that sells discounted Broadway tickets) is tothe northeast; and a traffic island is to the southeast.
In the shooting's aftermath, there did not appear to be significant alarm, at least as judged by tourists who, far from avoiding the area, seemed topush forward to get a view of what had happened.
Emer Rooney, 33, a visitor from Ireland on the last day of a trip to New York, walked with a friend from a nearby hotel to take pictures of the scene. Shesaid she had never felt unsafe in New York. "I actually feel it's very safe," she said. "Look at all the police officers." She citedthe shooting, in fact, as one of the more exciting moments of her trip, including recovering lost luggage at the Port Authority Bus Terminal and gettingtickets to the musical "Wicked."
A tourist from Australia, Suzanne Davis, 42, stopped to take images with a video recorder. "It's my first day in New York, so it makes very realwhat you see in the movies," she said.
Nearby, vendors continued to sell tickets for double-decker bus tours.
The people who sell the CDs are well known to the businesses and street vendors in the Times Square area. "They give people the CD, sign it, then makepeople feel obligated to buy it," said Greg Carroll, who does sidewalk promotion for a comedy club. "Normally they just stay on the corner and askpeople, but sometimes they do get in people's faces."
Employees at Embassy Electronics said they had called the police repeatedly for what they described as sellers harassing tourists outside their store."First they give it to you like its free, then when they sign it, they ask for money," said one employee who declined to give his name.
Other people on the street expressed more sympathy. "They're good guys, I see them all the time," said James Evans, who helps run a table forthe United Homeless Organization - which has itself been accused ofbeing a sham - on Seventh Avenue and 46th Street. "All of them do the same thing, they give them a CD and then they ask for adonation."
"Nothing in life is free," he added.
