Two innocent bystanders were hit in a Times Square shooting Saturday night after New York City police officers opened fire as they tried to subdue an "emotionally disturbed" man.
The confrontation started around 10 p.m. about a block west of Times Square, where officials say 35-year-old Glenn Broadnax was running into the street,
apparently trying to get a car to hit him, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told CNN.
Witnesses said Broadnax evaded police and, at one point, mimicked pointing a gun at officers.
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"At some time he reached into his pocket, took out his hand and simulated as if he was shooting at them," Kelly told reporters late Saturday.
Two officers then fired three shots at Broadnax but missed, instead striking a 54-year-old woman in the knee and grazing a 37-year-old woman in the buttocks.
The officers eventually brought Broadnax down with a Taser. He was taken into custody and charged with menacing, obstructing governmental administration, riot, criminal possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct, the New York City Police Department said in a statement Sunday.
The 54-year-old woman underwent surgery is listed in stable condition, while the 37-year-old victim was treated and released, according to CNN.
This marks the second time in as many years that a bystander has been shot mistakenly by police. In 2012 nine bystanders were injured during an altercation with a man suspected of gunning down a former co-worker outside the Empire State Building.
The NYPD and Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended officers' actions in that case.
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