Two women and a child were injured Saturday afternoon in Times Square, New York, caught in a shooting, an incident that risks fueling controversy over the rise in crime as the city wants to revive tourism.
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The shooting took place in broad daylight, just before 5:00 p.m. local time (9:00 p.m. GMT), at the crossroads of 7th Avenue and 44th Street, according to police who cordoned off the area for several hours. The three victims - a four-year-old in her stroller, shot in the leg as her family bought toys, a 46-year-old woman affected in the foot, and a 23-year-old tourist from the state of Rhode Island affected in the leg - were hospitalized in a Manhattan hospital, and their life was not in danger, said New York police chief Dermot Shea during a press briefing at the scene.
According to preliminary information cited by the boss of the New York police force, Dermot Shea, the three victims - who apparently did not know each other - found themselves by chance in the middle of an argument between "
two to four men
".
At least one of them drew a gun and fired.
No arrests had been made by early evening.
Police called for witnesses and released surveillance camera footage of a wanted man.
Dermot Shea denounced insufficient laws to fight the growing number of firearms illegally circulating in America's largest metropolis, and stop repeat offenders.
Number of shootings on the rise
"
How many children have to be reached before we realize that bad policies have harmful consequences?"
He said, recalling that two people suspected of a shooting that killed a baby in July 2020 in Brooklyn had just been arrested. "
Fortunately, these innocent passers-by are in stable condition
," Mayor Bill de Blasio also tweeted. “
The perpetrators of this violence are wanted and the police will bring them to justice. The flow of illegal weapons arriving in New York must stop,
”he added.
Times Square, one of New York's tourist hotspots before the pandemic, has changed since theaters were forced to close in March 2020. According to a recent report from the Times Square Alliance, the neighborhood business association, the zone recorded 25 violent crimes in the first quarter of 2021, against 17 over the same period of 2020. At the end of March, the video recording of an assault against a sexagenarian of Asian origin in the district had shocked.
A man with a heavy judicial record, who lived in a hotel near Times Square that had become a reception center for the homeless, had been arrested and charged.
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The violence comes as the city plans to lift most restrictions due to the pandemic on May 19, and to launch a campaign to revive tourism in June. The theaters which are the main attraction of the district must reopen from September 14. Shootings have risen sharply in New York City since the summer of 2020 and the movement against racial inequalities. The reasons for this increase as the police reforms to be initiated are controversial, six weeks before the primary for the municipal election. According to the latest official statistics, New York recorded 149 shootings in April, against 56 in April 2020 (+ 166%). Crime in general was up 30% over the same period.
