Time Square Shooting 2013: NYPD Shoots Two Women Near Times Square
An accidental police shooting in New York's Times Square area on Saturday has left two innocent people injured but in stable condition, police say. The victims were a 35-year-old woman and a 54-year-old woman.
The police had fired shots towards a man who reached into his pocket for what was believed to be a gun. The police first approached him when he was erratically walking through traffic at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, CBS News said. Witnesses told The New York Times that several cars hit the man before the shooting took place.
Several intersections were shut down and blocked off in the midtown area where the shooting took place.
Witnesses started tweeting about the shooting soon after it happened.
"Omg just witnessed NYPD gun down a pedestrian in Times Square," Kerry Ann Nesbeth (@Knesbeth) said in a tweet, which included a photo of a woman lying on the ground next to a walker.
"For everyone asking, yes, the walker was the woman's who was hit," she said.
The 35-year-old suspect, identified as Glenn Broadnax, was taken down by a taser and brought to a hospital where he was in police custody. According to CBS, police said he was "emotionally disturbed."
According to The New York Times, Broadnax was charged with menacing, obstructing governmental administration, riot, criminal possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
With the NYPD already facing intense scrutiny lately due to issues surrounding the city's stop and frisk policy, the police will likely face criticism because the suspect didn't have a gun.