A teenager gunman burst into tears as he was hauled away in handcuffs for allegedly shooting a tourist in the leg after opening fire in Times Square.
Jesus Alejandro Rivas-Figueroa, 15, a migrant from Venezuela, was arrested by US Marshals in Yonkers after a nearly day-long manhunt.
NYPD Deputy Chief of Detectives Jason Savino called him a ‘very, very violent’ suspect who recklessly fired a ‘very large’ .45 caliber handgun in a crowded area of New York City.
But the baby-faced alleged bandit, who was also wanted for armed robbery, looked more like a scared child crying for his mother.
Jesus Alejandro Rivas-Figueroa, 15, burst into tears as he was hauled away in handcuffs for shooting a tourist in the leg after opening fire in Times Square
The teenage migrant from Venezuela was arrested by US Marshals in Yonkers after a nearly day-long manhunt
A woman could be heard wailing as he was frogmarched out of the house shackled at the ankles and handcuffed behind his back.
Rivas-Figueroa is accused of firing at a security guard who confiscated a coat he and two friends tried to steal from JD Sports Store on West 42nd Street and Broadway.
The bullet missed and hit Tatiele Riberio Lemos, a 38-year-old Brazilian tourist, who was waiting in line to buy a pair of sneakers about 7.15pm on Thursday.
He fled through Times Square, allegedly firing wildly two times at police who chased after him with no regard for the thick crowd of shoppers.
Savino alleged Rivas-Figueroa fired twice at pursing cops, once firing blind over his shoulder as he ran ‘something potentially so dangerous’.
‘Our shooter had no regard for anyone in the area, really as reckless as we’ve seen,’ he said.
Rivas-Figueroa is posed for photos by arresting officers pushed up against a wall in handcuffs
Rivas-Figueroa was arrested by a dozen heavily armed US Marshals with assistance from the NYPD
Savino said he shot at the officers who pursued him through the streets of Midtown ‘without a thought for who he might hit or kill’.
‘It’s an actual miracle we’re not having a different conversation right now.’
Chief of Patrol John Chell demonstrated how the gunman shoved the weapon under his armpit and fired as he ran, without looking.
‘He had no problems firing into a crowd at a store… and not shooting at cops once, but shooting at them twice,’ he said.
‘And I gotta tell you, [if] one of those bullets hits our cop last night, this is a whole different conversation we’re having today.’
Chell said cops showed great restraint not to fire their weapons into a crowd of New Yorkers.
‘You saw the video. He turns once, fires towards our officer. Our officer takes his gun out. He cannot return fire. There’s too many people in his way,’ he said.
The New York Police Department is offering a $13,500 reward in their hunt for a gunman, Jesus Alejandro Rivas Figueroa
Rivas Figueroa is a 15-year-old migrant from Venezuela who entered the country in September
Police have also released the above image of the shooting suspect as they hunt for him
‘Our suspect goes through the cut between the buildings. He’s running, he takes his gun out and under his armpit he fires again at our officer.’
Savino thanked the US Marshals for ‘taking such a dangerous subject off our streets so he can no longer harm anyone else’.
He said the alleged shooter may have a family connection to Yonkers, but it was still unclear.
Horrifying CCTV footage shows how gunfire erupted after a security guard stopped the shooter and two other teenagers as they tried to leave the store.
The female guard asked for their receipts and one of the group walked out of the shop empty-handed, but the other two stayed.
She then grabbed a shopping bag that contained a jacket they were allegedly trying to steal, and approached the other teenager.
Tatiele Riberio Lemos, a 38-year-old Brazilian tourist, was waiting in line to buy a pair of sneakers when the bullet hit her in the leg
Witnesses tied her shirt around her leg as makeshift tourniquet (pictured) after blood dripped down on to her shoe
The bullet struck her just above the knee of her left leg and took 13 stitches to close the wound
Suddenly, and without warning, the first teenager, who was holding the back, pull a gun from his shoulder strap bag.
The young man then opened fire at the guard, but instead hit Riberio in the leg, just above the knee, as she was shopping inside the store with a friend.
Riberio said she heard what she thought was an explosion, then saw smoke out of the corner of her eye and felt a sudden pain as other shoppers began running and screaming.
She limped to a storage room, and barricaded herself inside as the security guard left the teenagers and rushed to her aid.
Riberio, who was visiting NYC with her mother-in-law, said she didn’t know she was injured until she was inside the room and had a chance to look at her leg.
‘I felt a lot of pain but didn’t know where the pain was coming from. It was a scary moment,’ she told NBC.
‘I started checking myself. I looked at my leg and saw blood dripping down. But I was able to stay calm.’
The NYPD is hunting a thief who opened fire inside JD Sports in Times Square night, injuring a tourist before fleeing
The guard asked for their receipts and one of the group walked out of the shop empty-handed, but the other two stayed
Witnesses tied her shirt around her leg as makeshift tourniquet as staff and other shoppers huddled in the store’s back room.
Riberio was rushed to Bellevue Hospital in a stable condition and only then did she realize she had been shot, and needed 13 stiches over the wound.
A policeman who ran out of breath while chasing the suspects was taken to New York-Presbyterian.
Police said Rivas-Figueroa was staying at the Stratford Hotel, blocks from Times Square and which is being used as a migrant shelter, and entered the US in September.
After allegedly shooting the tourist and at police, Rivas-Figueroa escaped into the 49th Street subway station while one of his friends was arrested without incident.
He was recorded on CCTV running across the subway station wearing a whit shirt and white pants, having ditched his white coat and white baseball cap, and running along the tracks before escaping out another subway exit.
He and another of the teenagers left a trail of clothes along West 48th Street and Sixth Avenue as they fled.
Police were seen outside The Stewart hotel on Friday as they search for the alleged gunman, believed to be a migrant between 15 and 20 years old
Police are offering a $13,500 reward in their hunt for the gunman who injured a Brazilian tourist and shot at cops as they chased him
The Brazilian tourist was seen being taken away by an ambulance in footage from the scene
The NYPD offered $13,500 reward in their hunt, plastering CCTV photos of the suspect as he ran across the subway platform.
At just 15, Rivas Figueroa is already also wanted in two other crimes – an armed robbery in the Bronx from January 27 and another shooting in Midtown.
Chief of Patrol John Chell said on Friday that police also identified the two other teen boys who are persons of interest, aged 15 and 16. They have not been named.
Chell said police are calling the 15-year-old a person of interest and are still determining what his involvement, if any, was. He was detained shortly after shooting as Rivas-Figueroa got away.
Police were seen outside The Stewart hotel on Friday as they searched for the alleged gunman, who they said was armed with the .45 pistol he used to open fire in Midtown.
‘We need the public’s help to identify and locate this individual before he hurts anyone else. He already shot an innocent person and tried to murder a NYC Police Officer,’ NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
The suspects left a trail of clothes at West 48th Street and Sixth Avenue
Heavily armed police patrol Times Square with the shooter still at large
Investigators mark a tool believed to have been dropped by the teens as they fled
It is the latest incident of spiraling crime at the tourist hotspot.
A gang of seven migrants has been indicted for attacking NYPD officers in Times Square in a separate attack on January 27.
Most of them were released after their initial arrest and have not been located by cops since.
Only one remains in custody.