The officer, Sergeant Christopher Newsom, asked them for their tax identification, which allows peddlers to sell on the streets. But Martinez fled through to the Marriott Marquis hotel’s passenger drop-off area.
Newsom pursued, and Martinez turned and fired with a Mac-10 9mm machine pistol that held 30 rounds; he got off two shots before it jammed, police said. The officer fired four times, striking the suspect in the chest and arms and killing him, Kelly said.
“We’re lucky the weapon jammed,’’ Kelly said.
The commissioner said the shooting preliminarily appeared to be within department guidelines, which allow for deadly force when an officer’s life is threatened.
Dave Kinahan, a tourist from Boston, was parking his car in a spot below street level at the hotel when he saw one man shooting another.
“I was 20 yards away,’’ Kinahan said. He said he thought, “Is this real or this a movie?’’
The hotel is located in the Theater District in the heart of Times Square. Bullets from the gunfight shattered the window of the Broadway Baby gift shop and a side window of a box office on the street, police said.
Duncan Stewart, a Broadway casting director, has a 12th-floor office that overlooks Times Square. He said he was on the phone when he heard three loud pops.
Stewart has worked in Times Square for three years. He has become used to seeing the weird and wacky, but almost never anything violent.
“It’s bizarre. It’s one thing to see the Naked Cowboy day after day in Times Square, but a shooting is something different altogether,’’ he said.
Police say Martinez and his brother, who is in custody, were working a scam in which they would approach tourists, ask them their names, then write the names on the CDs and demand payment of $10. They claim the CDs are original work they’ve created, but it’s unclear whether that is true. They had already been given a summons this year for not having identification.
