Shootout in Times Square

I lived in NYC for a year when I was a child and I was undoubtedly shielded from trouble that I've read about since..
anyway, in the eighties, a friend in my design classes (in California) told me she had been mugged on the escalator in Lord & Taylors, a store that rested in my mind as a kind of heaven from back when I was eight. I surmise things were hairier in the eighties, though of course I don't know the statistics.
Recently I've thought of NYC as relatively safe as cities go.
In this situation, so far, I'm on the police's side.
I'd still like to go to New York again any day of the week.

I just read that story. Of course, the man was stupid to pull out a gun. I also think it was stupid for anyone to fire in Times Square, including the cops! I suspect there will be more to this story as it develops.

It appears that the decedent was a motivated misanthrope.

Drop in anytime! We'll leave the light on for ya!

It strains credulity that anyone coud be mugged
on an escalator in Lord & Taylor 's.





David

Jane doesn't lie.

I _ad - letter _ now missing - a wonderful time in '03.

It 's very hard to believe that the decedent
was "coercing tourists to buy unwanted items."

I can 't imagine how that coud happen.
It 's ez to just brush them off.





David

Maybe a purse snatching ?

I never knew t_e details. but Jane is a very straig_t talker.

Man, t_is computer mess is annoying.

We passed a shootout near Penn Station, (we were in a taxi) one night. A shopowner was murdered.

And I got mugged in the subway.


But I love New York!

Apparently, the purported vendors were doing a push. That's where I ask you, all friendly-like, "What's your name?"
If you tell me, (and what tourist doesn't answer a question like that in broad daylight?), I write that name on a CD.
(Sometimes it's written in a fancy graffiti like manner, very stylish)
BUT now I tell you, in a NOT-so-nice, don't try to screw with me, manner, that this is now your CD and to hand over ten bucks. Before you can say "Piss off" one or more vendor friends press in. No weapons are shown, but the message is clear.
Ten. Bucks. Now.
As the Russians say : the vendor has a nice smile and iron teeth.
You reach for your wallet. Pay the nice man. Poof. You're free.

For the vendors, it's rinse, lather and repeat as necessary.

The escalator heist is an easy one. When my partner and I spot a mark - a single female shopping on her own - I get on the escalator just in front of her. Maybe I even bump her to do it. Now I turn around --everyone watching thinks I am about to apologize-- instead I show my gun and say "give it up". My partner, who is right behind the victim, presses something, even a fist, against her back.
The exchange is made. We reach the top of the escalator. We know the store so well we could run through it in the dark. Even if the victim yells her head off, we are gone and coolly shopping, just another couple of faces in the crowd.
===
It really helps your world knowledge if you eat lunch with cops and detectives.
Pictured above is just another beat cop in the best city in the world.
Joe(no doughnuts)Nation