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Shooting near New York's Penn Station leaves one dead Shooting near New York's Penn Station leaves one dead
(about 7 hours later)
One person was shot dead and two others injured in midtown Manhattan on Monday, authorities said. A man was shot and killed inside one of the busiest subway stations in the United States on Monday morning, just as New York City’s transit system was beginning to fill up with commuters.
No suspects have yet been arrested. Three males were shot near Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan around 6am after drinking coffee together in a nearby McDonald’s, police said. Officers are looking for the gunman and two other men who may be connected to the shooting.
The incident happened around 6am on Monday at the entrance of a subway station at 35th Street and Eighth Avenue, a block north of Penn Station, one of the nation’s busiest transit hubs. A 43-year-old man was shot once in the head and died at the scene, said the NYPD’s chief of detectives, Robert Boyce. One man was shot twice in the torso and was expected to survive. The other was shot in the leg and has already spoken with investigators, Boyce said.
A law enforcement official who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation says the three men were shot during a dispute outside a McDonald’s restaurant, two storefronts down from the subway entrance. While early reports suggested that the shooting could be connected to a nearby methadone clinic, Boyce told reporters that it did not seem like the two things were related. Officials were, however, investigating whether the victims were undergoing treatment at the clinic, he said.
The official says the suspects were thought to have fled northbound on Eighth Avenue in a dark-colored vehicle. Five police officers were posted underground at the scene hours after the shooting. The streets above were closed off and police officers blocked off the darkened McDonald’s and other stores.
He says a 43-year-old man was shot once in the neck and was pronounced dead at the bottom of the stairs in the subway station. The New York Times profiled the McDonald’s in July because it is known as a haven for drug addicts.
The scene on Monday morning was in line with this seedier image of Penn Station. One woman yelled at a news van about solving the country’s gun crisis by drafting every American citizen into the military and another man held up a murky bottle and explained the benefits of drinking salt water.
Robert Rios, who moved from the Dominican Republic to the Bronx about three years ago, was walking in the area after the shooting to look for a job. He said he thought the US was a safe place, but said the shooting was a reminder that in a city of more than 8.4 million, “you don’t know who’s behind you”.
He was shocked by the scene outside the subway station, where police had cordoned off sidewalks and were standing outside subway entrances.
The heavy police presence is common for the chaotic area, which attracts tourists and residents alike.
“With all the cops around, I wouldn’t even think about having a gun here,” Rios said.
While subway service changes and train delays are a routine occurrence in New York, Monday’s disruption was reminiscent of an older midtown Manhattan, when Times Square and its surrounding areas were a den of crime and vice.
While the city’s battles in midtown are more mild now – the mayor is trying to reign in topless painted women and aggressive costumed characters in Times Square – the area is not free of violent crime.
In May, police fatally shot a man suspected of attacking four people with a hammer in the Penn Station area. In August 2012, nine bystanders were injured after police officers shot at an armed man outside the Empire State Building, a few blocks east of Penn Station.