Gunfire Erupts in Times Square Amid Knicks Title Celebration; Teen in Custody

Gunfire sent crowds scrambling in the heart of Times Square on Thursday afternoon as a dispute among a large group of people spilled into violence in one of the busiest pedestrian corridors in the world, the New York Police Department said.

The trouble began just after 3:30 p.m. on Broadway between West 44th and West 45th streets, police said, when an argument broke out within the group. A 26-year-old man was slashed in the neck during the confrontation and was taken to a local hospital, where he was expected to recover.

Moments later, a 17-year-old opened fire on the same group of people, according to police. Despite the shots ringing out in the packed plaza, no one was struck by the gunfire, and there were no reported injuries from the shooting itself. A second burst of gunfire was reported a short distance away near West 45th Street and Eighth Avenue.

Officers stationed throughout the area — a permanent fixture in Times Square — moved in quickly, and the teenage suspect was taken into custody. Charges had not been filed as of Thursday evening, police said, and investigators were working to determine whether the two incidents were connected and to recover any weapons involved.

The chaos unfolded as Midtown swelled with people, part of the throngs that have filled the city's streets during celebrations of the New York Knicks' championship. Cellphone video circulating online showed tourists and revelers ducking for cover and sprinting away from the sound of shots beneath the district's towering digital billboards.

It was not the first time gunfire has shattered the calm of the so-called Crossroads of the World. A 2022 shooting wounded multiple people, and a 2023 incident sent crowds fleeing, episodes that prompted the NYPD to maintain one of its densest concentrations of officers anywhere in the city. Police have repeatedly stressed that overall crime in the precinct covering Times Square has trended down even as high-profile flare-ups continue to draw national attention.

Times Square draws hundreds of thousands of visitors on a typical day, and episodes of gunfire there inevitably reverberate far beyond the immediate scene. City officials have for years pointed to the heavy, visible police presence in the area as a deterrent, and on Thursday that presence allowed for a swift arrest even as the gunfire rattled bystanders. Investigators urged any witnesses with video to come forward as they pieced together exactly how the confrontation escalated.