Times Square gunman who injured three including four-year-old girl is arrested in Florida
Farrakhan Muhammed arrested near Jacksonville a day after photo released by NYPD
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A suspect has been arrested in connection with the shooting in New York City’s Times Square on Saturday that injured a four-year-old girl and two adults.
Farrakhan Muhammed was arrested by US Marshals and members of the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force in Starke, near Jacksonville, Florida.
Shots were fired at approximately 5pm on Saturday following an argument among a group of men near the intersection of West 44th Street and Seventh Avenue.
Caught up in the gunfire were three innocent bystanders named as Marcela Aldana of New Jersey, Wendy Magrinat of Rhode Island, and four-year-old Skye Martinez of Brooklyn.
All are expected to survive and were treated for non-life-threatening injuries at Bellevue Hospital. Ms Aldana was shot in the foot, Ms Magrinat was hit in the thigh, and Skye was struck in the leg.
Mr Muhammed, identified as a CD peddler by The New York Post, was arrested less than a day after his photo was released by New York Police Department.
Police sources say he was aiming the weapon at his brother during the argument on the street.
Mr Muhammed has reportedly been arrested several times over the past few years — for harassing a woman over the phone in October 2018 and for aggravated harassment earlier that year; for assault in March 2020; and seven other times between 2007 and 2015 for robbery, grand larceny, and fraud.
Additional NYPD officers have been deployed around the city as New York continues to reopen and welcome back tourists.
One police officer on the scene that day has been hailed as a hero after she was captured on video running from the scene of the shooting, clutching Skye after she had been hit by a stray bullet.
Officer Alyssa Vogel raced to the ambulance with the wounded four-year-old as the girl’s mother followed behind them.