By Carol Tannenhauser
A tourist from Denmark was shot in the back early Sunday morning by an unknown individual who had tried to rob him on West End Avenue and West 103rd Street, a police spokesperson told WSR.
The victim, 31, was taken to Mount Sinai Morningside hospital, where he is in stable condition.
Police said, “the man was coming home from a party at approximately 3:30 am, when he was approached by the suspect who demanded money. The victim refused and kept walking, and was shot in the back.”
The suspect fled east on 103rd Street toward Broadway. No arrest has been made. The investigation is ongoing.
This is disgusting, this keeps happening and no one does anything. As a Democrat I’m voting Republican down ballot. We need a shakeup here. These ‘leaders’ need to know they can lose their jobs.
Great idea. Let’s move crime off the streets and into the offices of government, where it belongs! “America’s Mayor” has been suspended from the practice of law in New York for egregious misconduct and is under criminal investigation. The former president, who has abandoned New York for Florida, is also under several criminal investigatons.
Not to mention, if you compare crime stats over the last few years with those under Giuliani and Bloomberg, you’ll find things were worse then. The sad reality is that neither party has had a great handle on urban crime.
“Treating law breakers with kid gloves” is — and always has been — a GQP myth. Republicans love to focus on things that look tough but actually have no discernible real world effect (e.g., the death penalty, stop and frisk). Sensible steps — like reasonable gun regulation — won’t cure a nation awash in guns, but it will help.
I am a lifelong Democrat. If need be, I am very open to voting Republican, just not Trump or Desantis. Dems have lost their way. Treating law breakers with kid gloves is ridiculous.
I’ll vote Republican down the ballot too Annita!
Thank you. Finally, some common sense.
I don’t believe you are a Democrat. A MAGA police state is not an appropriate option.
Why would you vote for a party that wants no gun control at all???
THISIS THE ONLY PARTY THAT GOT A TINY BIT OF GUN CONTROL LEGISLATION. REPUBLICANS WILL HAVE GUNS IN THE HANDS OF EVERYONE.
Unfortunate you’ll be voting for the homophobic party of racism, anti-semitiam, forced birth and election denial.
I understand Annita’s impulse, but don’t forget it’s the GOP that would like to see more guns in NYC.
I would bet the perp got his gun illegally. Banning guns doesn’t prevent crime, just empowers criminals, because they know the chances of someone they are targeting of having a gun are so low that it’s open season for them. Prohibition didn’t stop people from drinking, and banning guns won’t keep them off the street.
Not true. SENSIBLE gun-control laws in conjunction with buy-back programs have been very successful in getting guns off the street.
You “bet” he got it illegally? So you don’t actually know and are making things up to support your ideology. Besides, Why bother with the black market when it’s so cheap and easy to buy a legal gun?
And in this specific instance how would more guns have helped? The person who got shot was a tourist so they can’t buy a gun even if they wanted to “protect themselves”. You’re living in la-la-land if you think guns have ever solved a problem. By making guns illegal, you make them more expensive to obtain. Sure it won’t solve the problem 100% but it sure will make sure every passing chap can’t access one.
Although the US has no exact counterpart elsewhere in the world, some countries have taken steps that can provide a window into what successful gun control looks like. Japan, a country of 127 million people and yearly gun deaths rarely totaling more than 10, is one such country.
Facts do not support your arguement.
Guns come from somewhere legal before they are accessed illegally.
Not ghost guns, & not plastic guns either…
“A plastic gun made in a 3D printer fired real bullets during demonstrations over the weekend. Texas-based Defense Distributed has just made the blueprints for the gun available free so it can be replicated by others in their own 3D printers.” -from 2013
You’re right, banning guns won’t get them completely off the street.
Wearing a seat belt won’t prevent every traffic death.
If you’re looking at a 100% solution, there will never be progress.
But here’s a news flash – fewer guns means fewer opportunities for gun deaths. It’s one component of a strategy.
Tighter guns have consistently reduced both legal and illegal guns and shootings in states and countries that have enacted them. We happen to have the worst possible combination of an ineffectual mayor, terrible DA, and poorly implemented bail reform. But the GOP is not the solution as they are consistently against gun control and, under MAGA domination, fomenting violence, insurrection, and racism.
I do hope you are just letting off steam. Gee lets have Elise Stefanik, the election denier
or how about “FBI arrests GOP upstate New York election official over alleged absentee ballot fraud scheme”. this guy
or maybe Lee Zelden, who says he will ban all abortions with no exceptions.
or ……….
Lee Zeldin is disgusting. A horrible old human being.
Please- politics aside, he’s only 42!
Best not to toss around that o word with such animus!
-an actual old person (accept no substitute)
Show me a major city in Texas or Florida with lower crime rates than here and I’ll consider a republican for governor who didn’t vote to overturn the 2020 election.
Excluding deep blue Austin, of course.
Why look at Texas when you can look at New York City? Republican Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg had crime at all time lows due to conservative policies. Even as crime was rising in other East coast Dem strongholds.
This post is false. Crime rates were higher under Giuliani and Bloomberg than they are now.
Sorry but the lowest NYC crime rates occurred under Mayor de Blasio. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
DeBlasio and his pipe smoking is how we got into this mess. Crime remained low as DeBlasio allowed the the NYPD to continue the effective policing of the past administrations. Bail reform was passed in 2019 and then DeBlasio cut the PD budget in 2020, resulting in soaring crime.
Just because crime dropped while they were mayor does not mean that they were the cause. Crime would have risen under either if they were mayor during the height of the Pandemic. They were just lucky enough to have been in office during a nationwide drop in crime.
Giuliani and Bloomberg were huge gun control advocates. Bloomberg has devoted his life to get rid of guns.
Crime dropped everywhere, and in NYC it dropped every year from 2014 to 2020 as well, but conservatives refuse to accept facts.
Covid turned everything around. And crime is up nationwide. In red and blue areas alike. I’m
It wasn’t because of “conservative policies,” and Bloomberg was a pro-business democrat who ran as a republican. And please note his position on gun control.
Just small factual correction, Bloomberg was a democrat. But yes, they both had lower crime rates (or at least it felt that way).
Crime dropped dramatically nationally while Giuliani was Mayor. At the time of his mayoralty and since, Bloomberg has been a Democrat. And he was and is extremely engaged in gun control.
Zeldin voted not to certify Biden’s win. He has no place as our Governor in NYS.
Thank you for that valuable reminder Kim.
No intelligent democrat would find the solution to be joining the party of opposition rather than participating in fighting for principles. You are no democrat!!!
My only concern is Lee Zeldin’s view on Abortion. I am disgusted that Hochul’s response to doing anything about Bragg is that she will address it after she is elected. In the meantime, our city is like a Will Smith movie where there is no justice.
They got rid of the DA in San Fran why can’t they make a change here. This is so upsetting and having a daughter I am struggling with this decision even more. Who the hell do you even believe anymore?
“They got rid of the DA in San Fran why can’t they make the change here.” NY State constitution does not allow for recall elections. However, the NY State Supreme Court can remove an official “for any misconduct, maladministration, malfeasance or malversation in office.” If you’d like to make that happen,you can submit an application for removal to the local branch of the appellate division of the Supreme Court. I assume this is a pretty high bar. I think it would be easier for Hochul to just ignore Bragg and cut him out of the decision making by working with his direct reports.
Yes- vote for Zeldin, a Trump acolyte who will, as governor, have very little power over NYC law enforcement. But if you feel good about it, more power to you.
EdNY, Thank you for once again teaching me the lesson to never bring up politics or anyone in the political arena in the WSR. I am not looking to debate, but I also don’t want a Governor who is more concerned about showing as much face as she can in NYC than about making change…or a mayor who is more interested in getting into the hottest club in the city and talking about how he is cleaning up the city than actually doing it…but after almost 40 years here how can you feel good about what is going on? There is no quick political solution.
That’s your only concern? Not the fact that he would be fine with overturning an election and the democratic process in general so long as it means his team ‘wins’?
“Same as it Ever Was.”
Politicians know nobody wants to hear bad news re compromise. Believe that most public servants want what we want: less crime, no human trafficking of any kind, smaller classes, less asthma-promoting pollution along with less traffic, in ALL the boroughs—civil and human rights, to choose whom to marry, or whether to give birth to a child, w/o implying that YOUR God is on HIS side.
Our attention to details, along with our attention span is shot. We depend on the gutsy and the “gusty“ to do the right things. Believe no one.
I’m with Anita Williams. I’ve been a loyal democrat, in a sense still am, but on 11.8.22 I’m voting republican, down the line.
Vote republican, even just this time. Need to change some rules, mostly the no bail law. This has got to stop. The quality of life goes down. The rate of fear goes up. Enough is enough. And mayor Adams – wake up and fulfill what you promised as a candidate – bring crime under control.
This makes no sense at all: Republicans want to allow more guns in NYC.
This is extraordinary! Of all times to give it up to moral outrage! See if you can hold your rage off long enough to support the idea that democracy, with all of its flaws, survives. This cycle let’s do our best to bury election deniers , choice for women deniers and racists… in short, the Republican Party’s dominant right wing. I believe it would be best to encounter our problems as a democratic republic as opposed to a autocratic soft dictatorship. Please understand that I am no less appalled by the violence.
Yes, this is shocking, especially for those of us who live nearby…..but:
Never say “no” to a man pointing a gun at you. Cash, ID, jewelry and phones can all be replaced.
Good advice, but nowhere in this story does it say the tourist had a gun pointed at him when he refused to give money. That’s the terrifying part. You can’t walk along Broadway from 96th to 103rd without half-a-dozen people asking for money. And now we have to worry that if we don’t give something every time, someone might shoot us?
You’ll have to pardon the Danish tourist. In his country this sort of thing rarely happens because they don’t have a plethora of guns and sick individuals roaming the street…not to mention a local government whose primary preoccupation is the safety and wellbeing of criminals and sadistic derelicts over the rest of the community.
How about we go back to penalizing people who commit crime regardless of the color of their skin. If too many black men are in jail then we need to look at WHY they commit certain crimes not stop punishing them.
At this point, it seems like some ppl commit crimes bc they know they can get away with them. Fool us twice…
Someone who would shoot a person in the back is likely to have shot the victim in the face after he looked at him. It’s possibly the case that the victim said no and walked before the perp. had a moment to grab hand point his gun.
We need more cops and cameras on the UWS. Get rid of bail reform and social justice reform. Get rid of Bragg. Make criminals pay severely.
Hopefully the victim was able to provide some sort of description to the police.
We can’t vote out our DA like San Francisco, the governor needs to fire him directly, which Zeldin has vowed to do day 1. Hochul is a joke. Crime is spiraling and she’s focused on adding new gender categories to drivers licenses and giving cannabis licenses to those with marijuana violations on their records. She preaches equality, but apparently equal access to safety isn’t on her agenda.
Zeldin can’t fire Bragg day 1, unless he can prove misconduct, maladministration, malfeasance or malversation in office. It makes a nice sound bite though — and you believed it.
Yep
Voting republicans is not the answer either. As they have no platform except to make women slaves again
Why not vote for a Democrat that has some common sense? Are there no quality of life Democrats to be found?
Common sense Democrats ran but didn’t win their primaries. Kathryn Garcia, Maria Danzilo…
Maria Danzilo is on the ballot in Nov foe the Parent Party. You can still vote for her and hopefully more ppl show up vs default to Hoylman. The Proud Architect of bail reform.
Well, and to let everyone roam around carrying guns. And to overturn elections.
Whats going on Democrat elected officials? Are you going to do something or just sit back and watch the crime go up? Im a Democrat but these democratic policies are WAY too lenient. Im watching the neighborhood I grew up crumble away before my eyes. I fear for my familys safety. Whats it going to take for them to realize that these issues affect us all? Stop putting political correctness over the safety of the city. Show me that youre at least trying to do something about the problem! This is why red waves happen and then democrats wonder how could somebody possibly vote red. We care about our safety and if the democrats cant do anything, well guess where our votes are going?
I really doubt voting Republican up and down the line is going to do much to stop random crime. If the guy with the gun is caught, he will be jailed with no bail option – that’s the current law. But I guess we have to blame someone when crime is up all over, not just in NYC.
The guy waving the ax in Mcdonald’s was arrested and released by Bragg all within 48 hours.
What did people think would happen? They tie the hands of the Police, empty the jails, Make the NYPD such a miserable place to work that Cops leave in record numbers, and only the bottom of the barrel even look at the job. Did people think that destroying your Police Department was going to make you safe?
How are the hands of the police tied? Specific details, please. Do you think cops are entitled to decide who gets tried, or even who goes to jail?
I’m not saying this is not a frightening event. But our police receive extraordinary pay and benefits. If they demand the right to commit brutality with impunity, or determine guilt or innocence all on their own, or they won’t do their jobs, then they need to find out what the job market is like for the working class people of this city.
With all due respect, Sarah, would you put your life at risk for a criminal who you know will be let loose on the streets in short order? Have you ever spoken to the family of a policeman or policewoman, who put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe? Would you want your son or daughter working really tough beats where lawless thugs commit crime knowing nothing bad is going to happen to them? Just like a majority of people are not criminals, the majority of cops are doing their job. But incentives drive human decisions. That applies to both criminals and cops.
This is terrible. The overall safety of the UWS (and the CIty as a whole) continues to deteriorate. It may be time to elect new leadership.
This is my neighborhood, and anyone out after midnight is taking big risks. I wish the victim a complete recovery.
What about people that work odd hours? This isn’t Peoria. It’s a city that operates 24/7. Perhaps you should get to know “your neighborhood” a bit better.
Near 20 years ago I knew a retired actor/dancer who lived at 106th and CPW. She was tiny and fearless and went out alone on foot at all hours if she felt like it,. Even back then her daughter was terrified for her. It was a long dark walk from Broadway at 1 AM. Nothing happened to her, but IMO that was dumb luck. Years before I was 25 I used to carry a 3 foot metal pipe after I parked in that area , figured my size and visible weapon would be a deterrence. Truth is, would never have been for an SOB who would shoot someone in the back. Guy needs to be caught and given extremely serious jail time. Or run into someone else who is carrying and prepared to use it. I’m getting to hate this city again.
For many years I used to go to work at 2 AM, walking down Amsterdam to go to the ABC Network studio control rooms to broadcast news shows for the affiliates… mostly I saw darting rats en route, the 4 legged variety… (and sometimes these two sisters, both dressed all in black; writers).
Sometimes it is what it is: you have to work for a living… but even I forget, and my first instinct is to think: what are you doing out at 3:30 am?
It takes a second for me to realize that we have every right to try & reclaim the night.
The more good people give themselves a curfew at night, the more dangerous it is for those who MUST travel in the wee hours for work! Keep NYC open 24/7. We don’t know how good we have it, and that goes for life, as well. I remember not so long ago, when the trains and buses stopped at night, feeling so glum! Keep stores open, lights on, cameras, and cops.
Reading the comments. Such a tough call. I am a loyal Bush/Cheney Republican who stood behind Rudy (before he went crazy) and I hate seeing how this city deteriorated after Bloomberg’s terms were up. But a deal breaker for me is any idiot who is an election denier.
at least you are making a thoughtful decision. Higher crime vs. election denial
We don’t know for a fact that an election denier would actually reduce crime. We do know that an election denier is an election denier. And that’s dangerous for everyone.
We live in a country with an absurdly high number of guns. They are marketed and illegally trafficked often to communities where petty crime and gang violence are rife. Last I heard the best politicians on these difficult issues were Democratic. The resistance to guns and accountability is from the other side. I hope the injured visitor recovers well. How horrible that this happened to him. I hope he is not followed by another shamefully widespread American blight – surprise medical bills!
Blaming guns is a cowardly way to avoid the realities of poverty, race, and ‘being mean’ to criminals. UWSers lack the fortitude to blame the driver. shooter, etc.
Blame the inanimate object. There are about a trillion rounds of ammo in the USA. If guns were the problem you’d know it.
We do know it. Guns are the problem. Other countries have problems with so many of the same issues we do, but they don’t have guns everywhere like we do. That’s why our country has a gun violence problem that others don’t. It doesn’t mean guns are the ONLY problem, but pretending they’re not a major part of the problem is crazy.
The problem is not guns it’s Illegal guns. It is virtually unheard of for a legal firearm to be used in a crime in NYC.
Where exactly do you think these illegal guns are coming from–illegal gun-making facilities??
They are manufactured and sold legally in states very close to us where there are more guns per block than we have rats and then a budding capitalist takes advantage of that states loose registration laws and sells the legally made and purchased gun to someone who transports it here illegally. If those states were checking ids and registering their guns more carefully, we would have less to worry about here as it would be much more difficult to pull these types of maneuvers.
But if the guns are acquired legally (or illegally) elsewhere, then it’s trivially simple for them to be transported (illegally) into the city. That’s the problem with a patchwork of firearms laws.
I’m very glad this person was not killed and wish them a speedy recovery.
Do you know what I’m noticing? No arrest has been made. Crime continues to surge, and on the upper West side specifically, a place where the police would have arrived within seven minutes under normal circumstances back in the day. This is clearly the 24th precinct and the 20th not doing their job, they want to show the liberals what it’s like to not have police.
Mark – WSR should be posting an update soon – an arrest has been made. Pretty quick in my book, and hope/assume they have the right person.
But they did make an arrest on that tree pruning case. https://www.westsiderag.com/2020/10/08/plants-torn-out-outside-buddhist-church
Completely agree. I live very close to there and every building has multiple security cameras. The face that they haven’t released a picture is telling.
Between this and the cops letting that Lincoln Center moped rider go after he almost killed that woman tells me the cops feel they should be paid even though they aren’t doing their jobs
I walked down WEA yesterday and I noticed almost every apartment building has a camera on the outside. I don’t believe it is possible that the person who did this got away without being videorecorded either on WEA or RSD. I hope the reason we are not hearing anything is because the police know who they are looking for and don’t wish to tip him off.
A day later and you’re expecting an arrest? Time to moderate expectations, and give the police a chance to do their jobs. The shooting happened under scaffolding that is lit 24/7, with CCTV tapes from cameras covering the block. I’m confident an arrest will be made and the shooter taken off the streets.
I live on this block. We have cameras recording 24/7 under the scaffolding. No cops have come to our building to inspect the recordings. Wonder why? Perhaps they got good images from other building cameras? But why not checkout ours too?
What an awful way for a tourist to experience NYC.
I said it to all my friends when Bloomberg left office that De Blasio will make us all miss Bloomberg. it’s shocking how the culture of lawlessness thrived under him. Doing nothing and being ignorant is just as bad as committing a crime (that applies to our National political climate as well). It’s time to take the city back. No bureaucrats and no lawmakers who glorify criminals or turn a blind eye. The stats are clear and NYC is a much more dangerous city than it was a decade ago. We should ALL have a problem with that. You think these criminals don’t know that nothing will happen to them? Let’s see what punishment is given to this fine specimen who shot someone in the back on the UWS. If he’s not locked away for life, then we’re saying that we don’t care about human life. How is the Danish man doing? Hope he survives.
I liked Bloomberg, but the fact is that the major crime rate was lowest under De Blasio.
In all seriousness, have you lived here during the Bloomberg administration? If you did, why would you say something like this, when anyone who lived here in Manhattan during Bloomberg remembers how incredibly safe it was? If you did not live here, and are just going by some chart you found on the internet, well, the chart is wrong. I look back at the Bloomberg years with fond memories, like my first romantic love.
Right… You got statistics from where exactly? As well what your own experience tells you?
How about you look yourself. There’s a website called “google.com.” You can enter “NYC major crime rates by year.” Then click on “Images” and you’ll see many charts that prove me right.
That is a ridiculous statement! Everyone knows the city was safe under Bloomberg and now everyone is afraid. Go Gaslight somewhere else!
Assembly Member Danny O’Donnell is always MIA – considering his office is one block away and lives a few blocks from this crime he is keeping a low profile as always.
Quite politicians NYers are electing. Jerry Nadler is also either missing or napping yet people keep voting for him.
As i have always believed, with “stop and frisk” if the bad guys thought they might be stopprf on the street their guns would be left home. Not a perfect program but it did have some merit. And I got this from NYPD officers.
Said like someone who has never been stopped and frisked.
We need to get serious about gun control. This is not about what party the mayor or governor belong to, as they don’t have to buy in to national party narratives. And anyone with a flicker of intelligence can see that our gun-crazed country has way more gun crime than anywhere else in the Western world. IMHO, owning a gun, any gun, or selling one, or giving one to someone ought to be an automatic felony, earning serious jail time.
Oh, right, 2nd amendment. Damn, I forgot. Oh, and there’s the Supreme Court. I forgot that, too.
OK, its time for a new constitution!
Democrats have been denying election results for quite some time as well. Many Democrats refused to accept the 2004 election. They claimed, falsely, that election machines were hacked, and they even pressured some states to send alternate electors. I don’t recall any cries about “threats to democracy “
This has got to stop. We need massive police presence in Manhattan Valley and enforcement of vagrancy laws. I hesitate to think of what more ex-offenders will bring to the neighborhood.
Does anyone know the actual details of the procedure by which the current terrible bail law could be rescinded? And which and how many public officials could help or hinder this? E.g. What will it actually take to get some an actual good sense law working asap–especially for curbing repeat offenses?
This is sad.I am afraid to be out late and can not wear my jewelry .
I’m about to be 60 smh.I remember Giuliani days.
ARRESTED!