Marriott Marquis Times Square shooting: tourist walking with family members struck by stray bullet during broad daylight id as 21 yr old marine: no arrests as crime wave persists.
A tourist who was shot at NYC’s Times Square in broad daylight over the weekend while outside the city’s biggest hotel has been identified as a 21 year old marine visiting from upstate NY.
Samuel Poulin, 21, was walking with his family when he was struck by a bullet Sunday afternoon circa 5:15pm. He is believed to have been a completely innocent bystander who was visiting the city from Northville, upstate New York, to attend a baptism.
A group of five or six CD vendors were arguing under the Marriott Marquis sign on West 45th Street, according to police, when one pulled out a gun and fired a shot.
The victim’s wounds are not considered life-threatening but tourists in the vicinity were said to be shocked and frightened by what had unfolded before them.
Poulin was struck in the back and taken to Bellevue Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Family members described Poulin as having recently graduated with honors from The Citadel — a military college in South Carolina.
Pictured upstate NY man with wife. Image via social media.
No arrests
The circumstances surrounding the shooting are unknown, but it does not appear the victim was the intended target.
Police are now going surveillance video in an effort to identify the two suspects responsible. No arrests have been made.
Shell casings were recovered on West 45th Street outside the Minskoff Theater, which remains closed because of COVID.
‘We were sitting at Juniors when a loud pop happened. And everybody ran for the hotel, they ran inside,’ said Sydney Santana who witnesses the shooting according to the nypost.
‘It really is bad that [the shooting] happened in Times Square,’ Santana said.
The New York Marriott Marquis is the largest hotel in the city with 1,966 rooms.
Sunday afternoon’s shooting is the second such incident in Times Square in little over a month as tourists begin to resume returning to NYC following the ravages of the coronavirus.
Dramatic rise NYC crime year over year
According to the NYPD, the city reported 202 homicides this year through Friday, a 14 percent jump from last year. Incidents of shootings have grown 57 percent so far in 2021, with 661 reported compared to 421 over the same period last year with shooting incidents haven risen 73 percent in May 2021 over the previous year.
The figure is an increase of 48 percent in the number of victims compared with the same time last year, and 53 percent more shootings which have skyrocketed since the pandemic gripped the country.
‘The news of another shooting in Times Square, in broad daylight, is a chilling reminder of the rising threat of gun violence across our city,’ Mayoral hopeful Eric Adams said in a Sunday night statement according to the nypost.
‘The spike in victims and incidents are not just statistics on a report; the trauma and bloodshed are real. We cannot have a real economic recovery from COVID-19 if our centers of business and tourism are perceived to be unsafe,’ reiterated Adams.
