Cops have released a photo of a person of interest wanted in connection to the shock daytime shooting on a New York City sidewalk, in which two children narrowly escaped gunfire.
Shocking video shared by the NYPD Friday showed a gunman opening fire on 24-year-old man Hassan Wright around 6.45 pm on Thursday in Sheridan Avenue in the Bronx.
Wright, who police believe was the intended target, is seen barreling into two young children, a 10-year-old girl and her 5-year-old brother, and knocking them down before the gunman ran up and fired multiple times in their direction.
The children miraculously escaped unscathed while Wright was shot multiple times but survived.
The gunman ran from the scene and took off with another suspect on a scooter.
The NYPD shared an updated image on social media Saturday night of a person of interest wanted in connection to the shooting as they continue to plead for the public's help in tracking down the assailants.
Police also released new details about the suspected gunman and the second man who helped him flee the scene on a scooter.
The gunman fired about a dozen shots in total in the brazen broad daylight shooting while the driver of the scooter allegedly dropped him off and picked him up after the shooting.
The first suspect is described as a man with sunglasses who wore all black clothing.
The second is a light-skinned male in a white baseball cap, a red long-sleeved shirt, and dark-colored shorts.
NYPD said it doesn't have a motive for Thursday evening's brazen attack but believe Wright was the intended target.
The children aren't related to the victim and were just walking in the area when the shooting started.
Anyone with information regarding the suspects whereabouts can call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.
The sun was still up when the shooting happened in the middle of a sidewalk lined with storefronts and potential witnesses.
Wright suffered three gunshot wounds to his back and both legs.
He was trying to flee from the shooter, when he knocked down the two children .
The gunman continued to shoot several times in their direction.
At one point, the supposed target was seen managing to get up before tripping over the youngsters and then crawling over them to get away.
NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison condemned the incident saying he believes it was 'gang related.'
'They'll shoot a anybody, at any time, in front of kids, during the day. This is what it's turned into,' he said.
'We need our police officers out here and we've got to make sure we deploy more cops, especially out here in the Bronx. We're seeing a lot of the violence going back and forth.'
On Saturday, the Democratic frontrunner in the New York City mayoral race, Eric Adams, announced he would front $2,000 of his own money as part of a reward to catch the gunman.
'It tore me apart to watch those children scramble as gunshots were still going off,' Adams said at the scene of the shooting on Saturday.
'This is New York, not some third-world country. We can't be silent. Our silence is just as dangerous... Our children must be safe.'
Adams urged anyone with information about the shooter to reach out to police or religious leaders and bring the wanted man to justice.
'I am not going back to the days where our babies were waking up to gunshots and not alarm clocks, where we normalize the violence in this city.' Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, said during a press conference.
'So I am offering a personal reward to anyone who has information that would lead to apprehension and conviction of the individual who discharged those bullets at those babies. Because if he would do it to them, he would do it to your family members.'
Adams spoke alongside Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz. The cash will be added to the NYPD's reward of $3500.
The incident is the latest in nearly 150 shootings across the city this month and - where shootings have skyrocketed since the pandemic gripped the country.
According to the NYPD, the city reported 202 homicides this year through Friday — a 14% increase from 2020. The number of shootings jumped 57% so far in 2021, with 661 reported compared to 421 over the same period last year.
The shooting marked a continuation of New York City's descent into a lawless free-for-all where random attacks in the street happen nearly every day.
Felony assaults are up eight percent for the first six months of 2021, compared to the same period last year, rapes are up by 10 percent and robberies - which includes muggings - have spiked by nearly 40 percent this month.
The numbers are disturbing in themselves, but the violence has intensified and taken place in public places, like parks and subways, and in front of witnesses and surveillance cameras.
On Monday, an unidentified man attacked two people with a rock after an argument became physical on a Brooklyn-bound subway.
One of the victims was rushed to the hospital with bruising to the head and knee, and the other victim was treated at the scene, according to police.
On Thursday, a 15-year-old was stabbed to death by a 48-year-old man over a parking spot in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.
The victim, Tory Lovick, was pronounced dead at the hospital, and the suspect's identity will be released after he's formally charged, the NYPD said.
These are examples of individual acts of violence, but there are even larger crime-related issues plaguing the city.
New York's Washington Square Park has been plagued by a string of after-dark raves, which have often descended into chaos and violence leaving nearby residents furious.
On Friday night a woman was left bloodied and bruised after being trampled on by terrified crowds trying to flee a man armed with a large knife and a taser.
The man with the knife and taser is alleged to be Jason McDermott, 42, sources told DailyMail.com. McDermott has been arrested at least 10 times between 2010 and 2014, the sources said.
Now locals have told how the park changes after dark, from a calm, relaxing atmosphere during the day to chaos when the sun goes down.
As the raves at the park have escalated, there have been claims of prostitution and public sexual acts, historic pot smoking escalated to hard drugs, and claims of people carrying weapons like baseball bats.
The New York Police Department's Sixth Precinct called an emergency meeting Wednesday night amid growing complaints from merchants and residents about the non-stop partying.
The meeting was met with dozens of protestors, who flocked by to park by nightfall. Although Wednesday night and Thursday were calmer than previous days, the NYPD said on Friday that they'll be on high alert this weekend.
Another major issue the residential and high-tourist area of Midtown Manhattan around around Times Square and Hell's Kitchen, where thousands of homeless people were moved to hotels during the pandemic.
Eight Avenue between Penn Station and The Port Authority Bus Terminal has become a drug corridor and a crime hot spot.
The police precinct that includes Times Square and many of the hotels where the homeless have been living saw a 183 percent spike in felony assaults and 173 percent spike in robberies so far this year compared to 2020, according to NYPD data.
Earlier this week, former NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton warned American cities, including New York City, are in for a 'very, long dangerous summer' as murder rates have skyrocketed
And there aren't any short- or long-term answers, Bratton told CNBC's Shepard Smith on Monday.
'Unlike the last crime epidemic that took decades to build up to the early '90s, this one has occurred, literally, overnight,' Bratton said.
'It's like the virus, it's literally, out of nowhere, and so solutions are not immediately apparent.'
Bratton, who earned the nickname 'supercop' for helping clean up the streets of New York City and Los Angeles, issued his warning on Monday as NYPD data showed shootings and murders in the Big Apple have increased by almost 70 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
In May, Governor Andrew Cuomo called the surge in violent crime a 'major problem' and said unless the NYPD gets a handle on it soon, the city would become undesirable.
'New Yorkers don't feel safe and they don't feel safe because the crime rate is up. It's not that they are being neurotic or overly sensitive - they are right.' he said.
Surveillance footage captured a brazen, daylight shooting just one block away from NYPD headquarters as crime in New York City continues to rise sharply.
The NYPD is searching for a gunman caught on tape shooting at another man on Friday afternoon in the Manhattan neighborhood of Two Bridges.
The bullet missed the intended target and instead hit a 46-year-old man who was sitting on nearby steps at the Alfred E. Smith Houses, police said.
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Police say the victim heard the shot and felt pain to his left arm and took himself to a nearby hospital to be treated for his gunshot wound.
Footage of the shooting shows the gunman firing off a shot at a man at close range following a brief dispute.
The gunman appears to have missed and the intended target runs away with a small dog following behind him.
The gunman, dressed in a black sweatshirt, black pants and white sneakers, is seen running in the opposite direction.
The shooting not only took place in broad daylight but also a block away from NYPD police headquarters at One Police Plaza.
Former cop, current Brooklyn Borough President
Promises: Reinstate crime-unit in NYPD, free cops up from paperwork and let them get back on the streets, appoint female NYPD Commissioner
Endorsed by: George Floyd's brother Terrence
Businessman and one-time failed Presidential hopeful.
Promises: $1bn COVID relief cash program, bring back tourism
Endorsed by: Elon Musk endorsed him for President
Lawyer, professor, civil rights activist, former de Blasio advisor
Promises: Defund the NYPD, launch city-wide affordable healthcare plan in New York City, build more affordable housing and more schools
Endorsed by: AOC
Former Sanitation Commissioner
Promises: Raise age of police recruitment from 21 to 25, make NYC rely fully on renewable energy
Endorsed by: The New York Times
Curtis Sliwa - Republican
Founder of the vigilante group The Guardian Angels
Promises: Reinstate the scrapped anti-crime unit in the NYPD.
He has been independent for most of his life but registered Republican in February.
Mateo is a small business owner, President of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers and a spokesperson for the United Bodegas of America
Mateo founded the Toys for Guns program in 1993 that gave out toys at Christmas for guns that were handed in to try to get them off the streets.
Promises: Add another 20,000 cops to the 35,000 already in the NYPD
