Shots fired in midtown injure three, police and witnesses say

Police converge on West 31st Street in Manhattan after three people were shot on Sunday, Jan, 21. 2018. Photo Credit: Getty Images/Spencer Platt

Three men were shot, including two bystanders, in midtown on Sunday afternoon following an argument, and investigators are searching for two suspects, police said.

The suspects and one of the victims were walking down West 31st Street, between Broadway and Fifth Avenue, when they started fighting, police said.

One of the suspects pulled out a gun just before 4:45 p.m. and shot one of the men he was with, also hitting a second man and a third, a Romanian tourist who was coming out of a liquor store.

All three victims were taken to Bellevue Hospital and were in stable condition, police said. One of the victims appeared to be shot in the arm, with two others shot in the torso.

It was not immediately clear what the argument was about.

Anthony Raj, 40, who works at a liquor store on the block, said he was at the cash register when he heard about five shots.

“When I heard the sounds I ran to the front,” he said. “[A victim] . . . fell in front of my door.”

Raj said the man appeared to be bleeding near his hip. A second man, who Raj said regularly comes into the store, ran inside the store apparently bleeding from his left arm.

“He asked me to call 911,” Raj said, adding the man kept saying: “I got shot, I got shot.”

Raj said he called 911 before a third victim was brought in front of the store.

Multiple evidence markers were visible on the street following the shooting.