Times Square Shoot-out
A little after 11:00 A.M. in New York City yesterday, a shoot-out took place in Times Square. It was in the theater district where Raymond Martinez, a 25-year-old Bronx resident and panhandler engaged in a conversation of bullets with police.
Christopher Newsom, a plainclothes police sergeant, questioned Martinez, who was selling CDs with another man on the street. Apparently Newsom had spotted Martinez moments before using an aggressive manner to sell his items to uninterested passersby. When the officer asked him for tax stamps, which street peddlers are required to carry, Martinez took off.
But Newsom, who has been with the New York Fire Department for 17 years followed. At one point Martinez turned around and began firing. The machine pistol, a Mac-10, held 30 rounds, but got jammed after only two shots. Bullets shattered the windows at a souvenir store and the Marquis Theater box office. Miraculously, no innocent bystanders were hurt, even though there were holiday shoppers and tourists about.
Newson, who had never fired off his weapon in the line of duty, fired four shots back and hit Martinez in the arms and chest, killing him. He died in the taxi area of the Marriott Marquis Hotel. The weapon the suspect had in his possession was reported stolen in Richmond, Virginia in late October. Martinez also had on his person business cards to gun dealers near the Richmond area, in Hampton Roads and Ivor. None of the gun shops would comment on the shooting.
But Mayor Bloomberg certainly would. Angry about the ease with which the people obtain and abuse guns, stated, “We keep getting this lesson every day. If you think of all the publicity about the terrible tragedy of Virginia Tech, we have a Virginia Tech in this country every day. It’s just spread across 50 states.”
Apparently, Martinez was wanted in connection to an assault in the Bronx, and he had an outstanding warrant for disorderly conduct. He was an aspiring rapper who went by the stage name of “Read,” and recorded videos of of his group, called Sugar Free, on YouTube. Some of his songs reference a distaste for the police, but in one in particular, he mentions having his gun jam on him–a strange premonition of the events that happened yesterday.
Police stated that one of the business cards Martinex was carrying had the mesage, “I just finished watching ‘The Last Dragon.’ I feel sorry for a cop if he think I’m getting into his paddy wagon.”
