PENN STATION — Local officials are calling for an emergency meeting with the franchise owner of an Eighth Avenue McDonald's, in the wake of a fatal shooting that took place just steps away from its entrance on Monday.
"We believe this establishment poses an unacceptable threat to public safety," several local politicians, including Councilman Corey Johnson and Borough President Gale Brewer, wrote in a letter to the franchise owner Linda Dunham on Monday.
"Acts of violence, as well as the open purchase, sale and consumption of drugs and alcohol have long been identified with this location," the politicians wrote in the letter.
Dunham agreed to meet with elected officials, officers from the Midtown South Precinct, the local community board and others next week, according to a statement written Tuesday.
"I will continue to work with the NYPD and community leaders to ensure the safety of our customers," franchise owner Dunham wrote.
The emergency meeting comes at the heels of a triple shooting on Monday that occurred at 6:15 a.m. just outside the McDonald's at 490 Eighth Avenue.
Angel Quiñones, 43, the father of a 13-year-old, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Investigators believe that Quiñones and the two other men who were shot, William Lamboy, 45, and Ed Torres, 48, all frequented a nearby methadone clinic and sold drugs around the McDonald's, sources said.
Moments before the shooting, they had gotten into an argument inside the franchise with a man in a hoodie who was trying to encroach on their drug territory, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce and sources.
As of Wednesday the perpetrator had not been apprehended though on Tuesday, police named Vincent Arcona, 27, as a person of interest wanted for questioning in regards to the shooting. Arcona was not immediately considered a suspect, police said.
The McDonald's came under increased scrutiny in July following a New York Times profile that described the franchise as a "throwback to a seedier era of New York City," in part because of its proximity to multiple drug treatment facilities.
