A baby-faced teen immigrant from Venezuela accused in a series of wild shootings in Times Square — including one that wounded a foreign tourist — was teary-eyed Friday after an NYPD manhunt led to his arrest in Yonkers, police said.
Charges were pending against the 15-year-old suspect, who allegedly opened fire on a loss prevention officer at a Times Square sporting goods store but hit the tourist instead.
The suspect ran off, and fired twice at police who pursued him on foot Thursday evening through the crowded Crossroads of the World.
Police released surveillance images of the teen on Friday afternoon, and said shell casings from the .45 caliber handgun he used in the Thursday night shoplifting and shooting at JD Sports in Times Square match up with evidence of a Jan. 27 armed robbery in the Bronx and a shooting in Bryant Park on Jan. 25.
But around the time cops issued the images and announced a $13,500 award for information leading to the teen’s capture, he was in custody at a residential address in Yonkers, said police.
“Just like we promised — 24 hours later, he’s locked up and off our streets,” said Police Commissioner Edward Caban.
“He’s considered armed and dangerous,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a news conference earlier Friday.
“He had no problems firing into a crowd at the store, striking a tourist (and) not shooting at cops once, but shooting them twice.”
The shooter was with two other teenagers inside JD Sports on the corner of W. 42nd St. and Broadway around 7 p.m. Thursday when a female security guard stopped them from leaving the store with items they intended to steal, cops said. Police said the items were either a jacket or some shoes.
The guard took the items from the teens, who according to cops then moved as if they were leaving the store.
But the baby-faced shooter suddenly turned an fired a gun at the guard, said cops.
The bullet missed the security guard but struck a 38-year-old woman from Brazil who was in line to buy a pair of sneakers, said Detective Bureau Assistant Chief Jason Savino.
“I was standing right next to her,” Lone Hanson, 62, a tourist from Denmark, told the Daily News Thursday. “She was just shopping with her girlfriend. I heard a boom and she was shot.”
The woman was hit in the left leg. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
“She was standing there saying, ‘Help, Help,’” said a witness who did not want to be named. “I took her shirt off of her and tied it to her leg.”
“I was asking her if everything was OK and she said she doesn’t speak English,” the woman added.
Meanwhle, the shooter and the other teens ran out of the store toward W. 47th St. Cops nearby grabbed one teen “without incident,” said Savino.
The teen shooter ran into a passageway that runs at sidewalk level between W. 47th and W. 48th Sts. at 1211 Sixth Ave., the home to Fox News studios, Chell said at at news conference Thursday night.
“The perpetrator goes in there, he fires one time at our officer,” Chell said. “Our officer draws his weapon but he cannot fire. There are too many people around.”
The teen kept running and fired a second shot at the officer from under his armpit, Chell said. The officer did not return fire in that situation, again because too many people were present, Chell said.
Chell said police showed “great restraint” in not returning fire at the teen shooter.
“Our uniformed officer was not struck,” Savino said. He added: “That officer was well aware of the danger that firing that gun on a crowded, busy street could potentially inflict.”
Chell said at the earlier press conference Friday: “I gotta tell you — one of those bullets hits our cop last night, it’s a whole different conversation we’re having today.”
“Let’s be clear: The stance of the city’s police department — we don’t care who you are, what your status is. We’re not going to broad brush the whole migrant community as being bad people,” said Chell.
“But we’re not going to put up with this.”
The shooter fled the scene wearing a white T-shirt and white pants.
An intense manhunt that involved collection of video images, witness interviews and ballistic evidence led to “pristine” pictures of the suspect that were made public on Friday afternoon, Savino said — and ultimately to the suspect’s arrest in Yonkers.
The teen was with his mother when he was arrested by Yonkers police and members of the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force, said cops.
The teen lived with his family at the Stratford Arms on W. 70th St. on the Upper West Side — a 10-story building and former SRO with more than 100 units that now houses migrants.
“He’s a very calm kid who went to church with his parents,” said an Ecuadoran shelter resident who said he works as a commercial painter and did not want to give his name.
“He was never any problem. Very tranquilo,” said the Ecuadoran man. He added: “I never saw him with any other kids. I always saw him alone.”
