A man accidentally shot himself on a Midtown Manhattan street late on Sunday night and then sent police on a wild goose chase looking for a suspect that did not exist.
According to police sources, officers from the Midtown North Precinct rushed to 57th Street and 6th Avenue just after 10 p.m. on Dec. 28. When cops arrived, they discovered a 27-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the chest.
Police loaded him into their cruiser and raced him to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was listed in critical but stable condition. The wounded man initially told authorities that a man dressed in black had gunned him down.
That information led police to launch a massive search in and around the crime scene in an effort to apprehend the suspected shooter.
However, it was later determined that the wounded man had mistakenly shot himself and attempted to cover up the near-deadly slip-up by telling police he had been attacked.
While no charges have been filed at this time against the wounded man, police sources say detectives are expected to charge him with filing a false report and criminal possession of a weapon.
