According to the NYPD, a commuter on his way to New Jersey was hit in the leg by a stray bullet near Penn Station on Monday night just before 6 p.m. The 58-year-old victim was caught in the middle of a fight between two men outside the NJ Transit entrance on Seventh Avenue and West 31st Street in Manhattan.
Police reported that the gunman was arguing with another man, 56, inside Penn Station when he followed him and fired at least one shot, hitting the innocent bystander.
The shooting began as the suspect approached his intended target while the man was eating inside Penn Station, according to NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, speaking at a press conference from the site. Shea stated that the suspect was likely asking for food when he was “kind of shunned away, and that kind of spills onto the street here.” Shea also said they are still investigating the connection between the shooter and the intended target.
The victim was brought to Bellevue Hospital and is expected to survive. The gunman was last seen heading southbound on Seventh Avenue, and police were still looking for him late Monday night. He was wearing a red backpack at the time of the shooting.
The Penn Station stray-bullet shooting follows a similar incident this summer in Times Square, in which a young Marine was struck in the back by a ricocheting bullet.
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