A young man was shot and killed Thursday evening in New York, near Times Square, police said, one of the emblematic tourist sites of the megalopolis where it is in principle forbidden to walk around armed.
Called urgently around 5:30 p.m. (22:30 GMT), the New York police (NYPD) rescued a 22-year-old man who was shot in the chest at the intersection of 8th Avenue and 44th Street in Manhattan. , in front of a fast food restaurant.
Transported to hospital, “he succumbed to his injuries,” said a police spokesman by email. “There were no arrests. The investigation is continuing,” added the same source.
According to the newspaper “New York Daily News”, relying on a witness on the spot, the young man was shot by two people who fled.
And according to this same source, the shootings caused a start of panic in this hyper tourist district with “a stampede of people trying to escape”.
Times Square is one of the most famous New York landmarks in the world: a crossroads and an esplanade in the heart of Manhattan, surrounded by giant electronic billboards lit day and night for the 50 million visitors who flock there each year. .
In principle, since September 1, it is forbidden to walk around armed in this whole district.
As part of the fight against crime and the proliferation of guns in New York, center-right mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, had put up dozens of signs “Times Square: Gun Free Zone” (“Zone no gun”) around the square.
After a surge in the number of firearm homicides in 2020 and 2021 in New York City, it fell in 2022 to 433 in a city of 8.5 million people and millions of visitors.