by A 15-year-old boy was arrested Friday, accused of shooting a Brazilian tourist in Times Square the night before and then shooting twice at a police officer as he fled the scene, authorities said.
The arrest came about an hour after police said at a news conference that they were searching for teenager Jesús Alejandro Rivas Figueroa, who shot the tourist, a 37-year-old woman who was hit in the leg. Her injury was not life-threatening and she had left the hospital Friday afternoon, police said.
Police officials said the teen was from Venezuela and had stayed at a Manhattan migrant shelter after arriving in New York last fall, one of tens of thousands of people who have arrived in the city after cross into the United States from the south. edge.
He was arrested in Yonkers, authorities said. He is also considered a suspect in an armed robbery in the Bronx and a second shooting in Times Square last month, said John Chell, chief of patrol for the Police Department.
Mr. Figueroa, a second 15-year-old and a 16-year-old, were trying to steal items from a JD Sports store on Broadway, near West 42nd Street, about 7 p.m. Thursday when they were stopped by a security guard, he said. the boss. Chell said at the press conference.
Figueroa pulled out what the chief described as a “very large gun” and fired at the security guard, wounding the tourist in the process. He then ran out and shot at an officer. Given the crowd in the area at the time, officers did not return fire.
“I have to tell you, one of those bullets hit our officer last night; the conversation we’re having today is completely different,” Chief Chell said. “Our police officers showed great restraint by not firing their weapons into a crowd of New Yorkers.”
One of the two teenagers who was with Figueroa was arrested at the scene, police said; the other was arrested Friday morning. All three attended the same school, police said. It was unclear Friday if they had lawyers.
Shootings and other crimes in Times Square often attract rapid and significant police attention due to the area’s status as one of the world’s busiest shopping and entertainment districts and a magnet for tourists and New Yorkers alike.
Thursday’s shooting was the latest in a series of recent high-profile incidents in Times Square.
On Jan. 27, a group of men who police say were immigrants got into a fight on West 42nd Street with two officers who suffered minor injuries. As a result of the altercation, seven men were arrested. They were freed after Manhattan prosecutors did not seek bail for them, a decision that led critics to lash out at District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg.
On Thursday, Bragg announced that seven men had been charged with felonies for their role in the melee and that several others had also been involved. He and other officials said the charges were based in part on video footage that appears to show men kicking officers during the melee.
But some of the footage released by Bragg’s office raised questions about the official version of how the melee began, which showed officers moving to restrain a man who appeared to be following their orders to move forward.
On Tuesday, during a live television segment on Fox News about an alleged immigrant-driven crime wave in the city, the crime-fighting group Guardian Angels approached a man whom the group’s founder, Curtis Sliwa, identified falsely in the air like a migrant who had been shoplifting. Police said Thursday they were investigating the episode.
