Police: Sanitation Worker Shot In Midtown, Suspects At Large
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There was a brazen daylight shooting on the streets of Midtown on Thursday. Police say a city sanitation worker was shot after he showed up to help his daughter, who was having an argument with her boyfriend.
A neighbor walking by asked CBS2's Andrea Grymes if the scene was a movie shoot. She told him, no, it was a real shooting.
The 40-year-old victim is recovering and police are searching for two suspects.
Cellphone video captured the aftermath of the shooting. Paramedics are seen lifting the victim on to a stretcher and wheeling him to an ambulance.
Elliot Garay lives down the block and shot the video.
"I heard 'pop, pop' and then another 'pop,' and I knew it was gunfire, and all of a sudden everyone started running down here," Garay said.
The NYPD said the incident happened at around 11:15 a.m. in front of 515 West 52nd St., between 10th and 11th avenues in Hell's Kitchen.
Investigators said the daughter had gotten into a verbal fight with her boyfriend and her father showed up to help her. Police said the dad then got into an argument with either the boyfriend or the boyfriend's brother, who was also there, and one of them shot him in the leg.
The brothers then allegedly took off in the victim's car.
The mid-morning violence left neighbors stunned.
"All I heard was a few gunshots and I'm like, what the heck?" Lena Adams said.
"What did I say? That's gunshots. She said, no, someone is probably popping off firecrackers. I said, no, for what? In the wintertime? No," another woman said.
Police spent several hours processing the crime scene. The victim was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in stable condition.
"It's sad this actually happened on our street, you know, because I thought 52nd Street was actually a very safe street, but you know," Garay said.
Police say the boyfriend and boyfriend's brother took off in a black Mercedes.