A teenage gunman who sprayed Times Square with bullets and hit two innocent victims told police he panicked because he ran into a rival while waiting on line for fast food, prosecutors said Sunday.
The 17-year-old shooter, whose name the Daily News is withholding because of his age, told cops he was standing on line with his girlfriend at Raising Cane’s on Broadway at 44th St. before he started shooting early Saturday.
“I took an Uber with my girlfriend from my house near the Forest Houses in the Bronx to Midtown to get food. When we got out of the Uber, we went to Raising Cane’s,” he said, according to a criminal complaint. “While I was in line to order food, I turned around and a guy said ‘Yo, yo, you good? You from Forest? Kreep!’ I recognized him from rap videos on YouTube.”
The teen continued, according to the complaint, that “I felt his eyes on me and told my girlfriend we should leave. That’s when I came out the store. I shot three times at the dude that was running after me. Then I ran.”
The teen was arraigned Sunday in Manhattan on charges of attempted murder, attempted first-degree assault, weapon possession and reckless endangerment. His bail was set at $200,000.
The teen has no past criminal record, prosecutors said.
Video from inside the chicken finger joint from shortly before 1:20 a.m. shows the alleged shooter standing in line when his rival, who’s in front of him at the ordering kiosk, turn around and start talking, prosecutors said.
After the encounter on the restaurant line, the shooter walked away, only to be followed by his apparent rival and some others, prosecutors said.
The teen fired three shots, hitting his intended target, a 19-year-old man, and fracturing his right leg, prosecutors said. He needed surgery to remove the bullet.
The teen also hit two others — an 18-year-old woman visiting from Maryland ,who was grazed in the neck as she sat in a car, and a 65-year-old man from New Jersey standing on a sidewalk when a bullet tore through his knee, prosecutors said.
The teen then ran west on W. 44th St., and straight into a uniformed NYPD officer responding to the shooting.
The officer drew his service weapon and ordered the teen to the ground, and the defendant pulled out his phone, holding it in his hand as he went to the ground, according to the criminal complaint.
The cop found a 380 caliber Glock 42 semi-automatic firearm, with blue grip tape around the handle, in the teen’s waistband.
“I found the gun in the grass at the projects about two months ago. It had four bullets in it. I searched on YouTube how to use a gun. I didn’t see him have anything,” the teen told police at the Midtown South Detective Squad office, sitting next to his mother, according to the complaint.
Cops shut down the interview after getting a call from the teen’s lawyer, prosecutors said at the teen’s arraignment Sunday.
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