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Cops Shoot Two Bystanders on 42nd Street While Trying to Subdue Man

By Jess Wisloski | September 15, 2013 8:36am | Updated on September 15, 2013 5:12pm
 Two women were shot and injured as police tried to get a disturbed man under control on Saturday night.
Police Shoot Two Bystanders in Midtown
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MIDTOWN — NYPD officers shot two women just steps from tourist-filled Times Square while attempting to control an emotionally disturbed man Saturday night, police said.

The melee erupted at 9:35 p.m., when an officer on duty at Eighth Avenue and West 42nd Street tried to stop 35-year-old Glenn Broadnax who was wading through traffic, according to an NYPD statement. 

But Broadnax ignored cops' attempts to get him to safety, and eventually plunged a hand into his pocket and drew it out to mimic a gun, prompting the officers to fire, cops said. Prosecutors said Broadnax pointed a black object at the officers.

He was pointing a MetroCard, witnesses told the Daily News.

One officer fired a single shot at Broadnax while another fired off two rounds, but both officers missed Broadnax and hit bystanders instead, police said.

Police Shoot Bystanders in Times Square
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A bullet pierced the right knee of 54-year-old Theodora Ray, shattering her tibia and fibula, as she stood with her walker at the northeast corner of the intersection, cops and witnesses said.

The other bystander, Sahara Khoshakhlagh, 35, of the Upper East Side, was released early Sunday from Roosevelt Hospital after she was treated for a bullet graze to the left buttock, according to police and the Wall Street Journal.

"I'm okay," she told the Daily News. "I'm doing fine. I'm doing good. I just need to rest."

Broadnax continued to evade cops until a sergeant stunned him with a Taser and he was taken to Bellevue Hospital, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a press conference there early Sunday.

Cops who searched Broadnax found a dollar bill covered in a white powder residue, a half-smoked joint and a baggie of weed, court documents show.

Broadnax was arrested at the hospital and charged with menacing, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, obstructing governmental administration, and cocaine possession.

He was held without bail after his arraignment Sunday night.

Broadnax told authorities that he had been high, suffering from hallucinations and trying to kill himself, police sources told NBC New York.

Broadnax, who is from Brooklyn, had at least 13 prior arrests, mainly for assault in Manhattan and The Bronx, the New York Post reported.

One of the officers who fired a gun has been on the force for 18 months and the other had been in the NYPD for three years, according to reports.

Kelly said Broadnax was trying to get hit by traffic, but that there was no evidence that indicated Broadnax was actually struck by cars.

"It appeared that he wanted to be struck by cars," Kelly said Sunday.

A witness on the scene told the Times he saw the the man get struck.

"He was just wandering, running away from the cop," the witness told the Times. "'He tried to run and ended up getting hit by three different cars.'"

An investigation was ongoing Monday.