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NYPD intensifies hunt for 16 suspects after Times Square melee left teen migrant stabbed in back
The teen victim, believed to be from Nicaragua, was visiting Times Square for the first time with friends when a gang of masked attackers knifed him in front of shocked onlookers Thursday evening.
nypost.com
NYPD intensifies hunt for 16 suspects after Times Square melee left teen migrant stabbed in back
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Published Feb. 23, 2024, 6:22 p.m. ET
Police were hunting for a whopping 16 suspects Friday in the aftermath of a wild brawl in Times Square that saw a 17-year-old migrant boy get stabbed in the back in front of shocked onlookers.
The teen victim, believed to be from Nicaragua, was visiting the Crossroads of the World for the first time with friends when a gang of masked attackers knifed him in the tourist hotspot Thursday evening, police and sources said.
“I saw someone running… and there was blood coming from his back, coming from everywhere,” Bell Mohamed, a witness who works in the area, told The Post.
The melee erupted on West 42nd Street near Eighth Avenue at about 5:30 p.m. when the alleged perps started arguing with the victim and his friends — screaming: “What’s up? What are you looking at?” according to law enforcement sources.
The violent band started chasing the victim before someone plunged a knife into his lower back, cops said.
The teen later told police he remembered being on the floor as he shielded his head from a flurry of kicks and punches.
He recalled being struck in the head multiple times, but didn’t remember what happened after that, according to the sources.
The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital by EMS, where he was listed in stable condition, police said.
5 Police were hunting for a whopping 16 suspects Friday in the aftermath of a wild brawl in Times Square that saw a 17-year-old migrant boy get stabbed in the back in front of shocked onlookers. Christopher Sadowski
Cops later recovered a large blood-stained knife at the scene.
As of Friday, cops had nabbed five of the alleged attackers — some of them migrant teenagers themselves — and were looking for another 16 suspects, according to the NYPD.
Michael Colome, 22, of Queens, was arrested and charged with gang assault, assault and criminal possession of a weapon, police said.
Three 16-year-old boys and one 14-year-old boy, whose names weren’t released because they are underage, were charged with gang assault and assault, according to cops.
Another juvenile was initially taken into custody, but the arrest was voided and he was released, police said.
5 The teen victim, believed to be from Nicaragua, was visiting Times Square for the first time with friends when a gang of masked attackers knifed him in front of shocked onlookers Thursday evening. Peter Gerber
At least two of the teens taken into custody are believed to be migrants from Venezuela, sources said.
The latest spate of violence, which unfolded on the same block where a group of migrants brutally attacked cops last month, left New Yorkers and tourists, alike, terrified.
“It’s dangerous,” Mohammed, who witnessed the stabbing frenzy, said of crime scene’s vicinity.
“Some people are just crazy.”
Cassandra Wygant, a med student visiting from Michigan in town with her parents, said they’d heard about the Thursday mayhem – and planned to leave Times Square before it got dark.
5 Three 16-year-old boys and one 14-year-old boy were charged with gang assault and assault. Christopher Sadowski
5 At least two of the teens taken into custody are believed to be migrants from Venezuela. Christopher Sadowski
5 Cops are still looking for another 16 suspects. Christopher Sadowski
“It makes me nervous, my guard is up. We are trying to be as safe as possible. We are leaving before it gets dark,” Wygant, 34, told The Post on Friday.
Julie Donovan, a 62-year-old retiree from North Carolina, said she and her friends, too, were on “high alert” in the tourist haven.
“I’ve lived all over the world and I was scared to come here. You see this stuff on the news and it’s crazy,” she said, adding that one of her friends had told her “Don’t look like a tourist.”
Brooklyn resident Bryan Fernandez, 23, who had come to Times Square to shop with his family, said although he wasn’t necessarily afraid, he was “100% aware of everything.”
“I just mind my own business,” he said.
“I don’t look at anybody directly but at the same time I am aware of what’s going on around me.”