In under seven weeks, four tourists were caught in the crossfire of two shootings in the heart of Times Square – and police blamed both incidents on sidewalk CD peddlers.
But on Tuesday, several of the unlicensed vendors returned to the scene of the crimes, armed with stacks of discs as they defended themselves against a new wave of controversy.
The group, all young men claiming, dubiously, to be rap artists selling their own music, insisted they and all the other CD hawkers who hustle in the area had nothing to do with the shootings.
'We are all CD guys and we have no idea who did that,' a Bahamian immigrant living in Queens, identifying himself as Swaggy Jeff, told DailyMail.com. 'The city needs to stop pinging every crime on CD guys. We're not bad guys. We're artists and we all have our own music. We have families to feed just like everybody else.'
He was selling an album titled 'Cash McDuck' for $5, but had no takers, and didn't press too hard as two NYPD cops stood next to him at the corner of 45th Street and 7th Avenue – just feet from the recent shootings that police say started with arguments between gun-packing CD vendors.
Illegal CD peddlers returned to Times Square on Monday after being blamed for two separate shootings in the span of just seven weeks
DailyMail.com spoke to a group of CD vendors - all young men claiming, dubiously, to be rap artists selling their own music - who insisted they and all the other CD hawkers who hustle in the area had nothing to do with the shootings
'We are all CD guys and we have no idea who did that,' a Bahamian immigrant living in Queens, identifying himself as Swaggy Jeff, told DailyMail.com. 'The city needs to stop pinging every crime on CD guys. We're not bad guys'
The group that was selling CDs on Tuesday afternoon told DailyMail.com they're all getting a bad rap for the recent crimes, but said they don't know the alleged perpetrators and doubt it had anything to do with CD sales
Marine Samuel Poulin (left), who was visiting from Northville in upstate New York to attend a baptism, was struck in the back by the stray bullet allegedly fired by a CD vendor on Sunday
A reward flyer for information about the gunman in Sunday's shooting is seen in Times Square
Sunday's shooting occurred shortly after 5pm under the Marriott Marquis sign, when police say a vendor fired into the air. U.S. Marine Samuel Poulin, who was visiting from Northville in upstate New York to attend a baptism, was struck in the back by the stray bullet, which caused pedestrians to scramble for their lives in the heart of Times Square.
It was just last month, also in broad daylight, that another vendor opened fire, hitting three innocent bystanders, including a four-year-old girl who was struck in the leg, a 24-year-old woman hit in her thigh and a 44-year-old woman shot in the foot, police said.
The gunman charged with the May 8 shooting, 31-year-old Farrakhan Muhammad, was apprehended days later in Florida after fleeing the city, while the suspect in Sunday's shooting remains at large.
The shootings come as the city is welcoming tourists back to one of its most famous landmarks, after the pandemic shut down Broadway and the normally thriving area into a haven for pot smoking, vagrants and street hustlers.
'It's like a war zone with all the gun violence these days,' said Jovan Williams, 43, a photographer snapping photos of tourists for money. 'It's a shame because Times Square is supposed to be the safest place in New York to be, with all the surveillance cameras, lights and police. And it's happening just as the city is starting to fill back up.'
Mayor Bill de Blasio responded to the most recent shooting by 'flooding the zone' with cops, who were present with guns in their waistbands on virtually every street corner.
Surveillance footage shows the moment a man opened fire in Times Square on Sunday night
The New York Police Department is asking for the public's help in identifying this man, caught on surveillance footage shooting at someone and fleeing from the scene
Mayor Bill de Blasio responded to the most recent shooting by 'flooding the zone' with cops, who were present with guns in their waistbands on virtually every street corner
NYPD officers stand guard outside a store in Times Square on Monday
The shootings come as the city is welcoming tourists back to one of its most famous landmarks, after the pandemic shut down Broadway and the normally thriving area into a haven for pot smoking, vagrants and street hustlers
At least for the short term, it made tourists feel safe.
'We hear there was a shooting here, but I see cops everywhere, so I feel pretty safe,' said Scott, 42, a tourist from Northern California visiting Times Square with his wife and three children on Tuesday night. 'I wonder how long the city could keep this up.'
His wife Jennifer wasn't aware of the shootings and said with a nervous smile that, 'I came here because I didn't know that happened.'
One of the cops stationed in Times Square told DailyMail.com that it's embarrassing to see violence erupt in the heart of Manhattan.
'Times Square is the most protected area in the city,' the officer said. 'For shootings to happen back-to-back, it looks horrible. It's embarrassing.'
He said rising gun violence is at least partly attributable to the fact criminals feel safe walking around with guns. They're no longer worried they're going to be searched because cops aren't enforcing the sorts of low-level crimes that could lead to the discovery of concealed weapons, he said. That includes aggressive panhandling.
'The city used to have a unit that handled illegal vendors, but they did away with that,' the officer said, referring to Mayor Bill de Blasio's announcement last year that the NYPD would no longer enforce street-vendor regulations.
'They're not pushing for quality-of-life offenses because they don't want confrontations that can lead to force. When you use force, it doesn't look pretty on tape.'
'The laws have changed so much that people now feel comfortable carrying firearms,' he continued. 'If it's not a violent crime, they're going to be let go.'
Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, mocked the mayor's decision to beef up policing in Times Square, calling it nothing more than a temporary fix.
'After May's shooting, the mayor said he was beefing up patrols in Times Square,' Mullins told DailyMail.com. 'Apparently, he didn't, and we now had another shooting in Times Square. The flooding of cops to any particular area is nothing more than gift wrapping to hide the fact of what's really occurring. Nobody talks about why this is happening. You have to address the real problems, enforce the laws, have District Attorneys prosecute them, and have bail that actually works.'
The group that was selling CDs on Tuesday afternoon told DailyMail.com they're all getting a bad rap for the recent crimes, but said they don't know the alleged perpetrators and doubt it had anything to do with CD sales.
'I don't see why you out attacking the CD guys,' one of the men argued. 'Since the pandemic, it's been slow. If we make $50 a day, we'd be happy. That's why we're so upset. The police want to pin this on us and annihilate our money.'
Pictured: NYPD Officer Davis tells the vendors to leave Times Square on Monday
Police sources say some of the vendors who present themselves as rappers are frauds, selling blank or garbled CDs, some containing malware
Some other legal vendors in the area say the CD guys deserves the added scrutiny
Guardian Angel supervisor Arnaldo Salinas, 59, stands guard over Times Square on Monday
But police sources say some of the vendors who present themselves as rappers are frauds, selling blank or garbled CDs, some containing malware.
And some other legal vendors in the area say the CD guys deserves the added scrutiny.
'The CD people are fighting with each other, fighting for money,' said Patrick Marlenga, 46, selling I love New York t-shirts and stuffed toys at a stand in Times Square. 'They're aggressive and they're forceful. There is no friendship with the other vendors.'
Marlenga was working nearby when both of the recent shootings occurred.
'I heard the shot then saw people running away,' he said of Sunday's incident. 'I'm scared. It's not safe here. In eight years here, I never see anything like this happening. You never know what's going to happen next.'
Crime rates in every category are up from last year.
As of June 27, 826 people had been shot for the year, up 36.3 percent over the same period last year. There have been 718 shooting incidents, up 42.7 percent.
On Monday, the mayor said he was increasing police presence in the area.
'Now, we've seen patterns in Times Square that we are going to address very, very aggressively,' he said in a news conference, introducing his new Times Square Safety Plan.
The plan includes the deployment of 50 more officers to the area 'to make sure that anyone who goes to Times Square knows they're safe.'
The plan, which went into effect immediately after Sunday's shooting, includes the deployment of 'dozens' more police officers, some of whom will be plainclothes, to engage with street vendors.
They would ensure the vendors are not engaging in 'aggressive panhandling,' NYPD Chief Rodney Harrison said, and would make sure they are not threatening pedestrians.
It would be in addition to the officers the NYPD previously deployed to the area last month, de Blasio said.
'We are going to flood the area with additional police officers,' De Blasio said, adding later: 'There's no question in my mind this is going to work.'
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