MELVILLE, N.Y. — Times Square was plunged into chaos
Thursday as a plainclothes officer shot and killed a street peddler in a
gunfight outside a popular hotel, officials said.
The shooting in the driveway of the 1,946-room Marriott
Marquis occurred after the heavily armed peddler ran through holiday crowds
from a police anti-crime patrol and then began firing at an NYPD sergeant who
was pursing him, said police spokesman Paul Browne.
“Is this real or is this a movie?” startled
tourist David Kinmahan of Boston asked an Associated Press reporter as he
witnessed the shooting while parking his car nearby.
The dead man was identified late yesterday by police as
Raymond Martinez, 25, of the Bronx. The sergeant, identified by a law
enforcement source as Christopher Newsom, is a 17-year veteran normally
assigned to a special peddler unit but who was working anti-crime patrol
yesterday. Newsom’s age and hometown weren’t available.
Investigators said Newsom recognized Martinez and his
brother as being aggressive sellers of CDs and suspected by police of scamming
tourists.
Some peddlers try to intimidate tourists into buying
merchandise by writing a person’s name on it. The police patrol approached the
pair and asked to see a New York State tax stamp, Brown said. Martinez had
previously received a summons for not having a tax stamp, he said.
Martinez then fled, pursued by Newsom.
” ‘Stop, stop. Show me your hands,’ ” the pursuing
officer yelled in the hotel driveway just before Martinez began firing,
according to Browne. Martinez fired two shots from a stolen MAC-10 machine
pistol before the gun jammed, Browne said.
Newsom, who was standing no more than 15 feet from Martinez,
then placed his left hand over his own chest for protection and with his
service weapon in his right hand fired four shots, all of which struck
Martinez, said a police source. Martinez’s weapon still had 27 rounds in its
magazine, said the source.
Officials said Martinez was struck in the chest, under the
collarbone and in both arms, and was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.
Newsom was unharmed in what was his first shooting as a police officer.
Investigators said the MAC-10 had been reported stolen on
Oct. 28 from a car in Richmond, Va. Kelly said that among the cards Martinez
had on him was a business card from a gun supplier in Richmond that had some
chilling handwriting scrawled on it.
Browne explained the business card, from Gary’s Guns and
Transfers, had written on the back, “I just finished watching ‘The Last
Dragon.’ I feel sorry for a cop if he think I getting into his paddy
wagon.” A call to proprietor Gary Lewis wasn’t returned. The 1985 movie
“The Last Dragon” centers on a young man searching to obtain the
final level of martial arts mastery.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the shooting appeared to
follow police guidelines. A surveillance video captured the officer shooting
but not Martinez, Browne said.
Martinez’s brother, who didn’t flee police, was being
questioned late yesterday. Raymond Martinez had a number of previous arrests,
including one for assault, and an outstanding warrant for a disorderly conduct
charge in the Bronx, said Browne.
After dark, tourists snapped photos and stared at electronic
billboards just a few feet from where the shooting happened.
Charles Philippe, 28, and Melissa Ott, 38, of Montreal,
Canada, posed for pictures with the Naked Cowboy across Broadway where the
shooting erupted. Philippe said he wasn’t concerned about safety because
“there’s strength in numbers” in busy Times Square.
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
