Panic in Times Square.
A motorcycle backfired in the area of Eighth Avenue and West 42nd Street around 9:30 on Tuesday night and sounded like gunshots. That caused a stampede, with people likely on edge and easily spooked because of the two mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton over the weekend.
The NYPD tweeted that there was no active shooter in Times Square.
“Please don’t panic.The Times Square area is very safe!” the NYPD tweeted.
Gideon Glick, an actor with the Broadway shot, “To Kill A Mockingbird” tweeted that the show had to be stopped on Tuesday night because of the scare.
“Screaming civilians tried to storm our theater for safety.The audience started screaming and the cast fled the stage. This is the world we live in.This cannon be our world,” Glick tweeted.
Mayor de Blasio sympathized with those scared by the motorcycles backfiring. He used the incident to call for tougher gun control laws, saying “what people felt was all too real.”
“Nobody should have to live in constant fear of gun violence.This country is better than this. Let’s FIX this NOW,” Mayor de Blasio tweeted.
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