Now then, once I made it back to Central Park I decided to go for a quick burn around
Midtown before calling it day. It was around noon at this point. Part of that burn included
Times Square, which stretches between West
42nd and West
47th Streets along
Seventh Avenue. Just three hours later at 3pm around 44th and Seventh, a 51-year-old man who appeared to be smoking marijuana was approached by police. The story goes he became angry, pulled out an 11-inch knife, and started waving it round like a madman right in the heart of tourist-packed Times Square. The guy then started to flee south along Seventh with an increasing number of
NYPD cops in pursuit. When I say flee, he was actually ambling backwards, apparently looking dazed and confused. He ignored repeated calls to drop his weapon, several rounds of pepper spray appeared to have little effect (it blew away in the wind - doh!), and at one point he shouted "Shoot me! Shoot me!" at the crowd of more than 20 cops following him. This went on for seven whole blocks, eventually coming to an end at West 37th Street when he lunged at police who in turn opened fire. He was rushed to nearby
Bellevue Hospital but later died from his injuries. Given the location and the nature of the pursuit, there is no shortage of photos and video footage of all this (and let's be honest, had I been there I'd have been capturing my own). One such video and more info
here. A news article I just read claims that a tourist sent out the following Tweet right after the incident: "I've been in NYC for 10 minutes and saw a man shot on 7th ave! Omg...." hehe. Welcome to the Big Apple.