Five police officers injured as Manhattan high school students start massive brawl over accident near Times Square
MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN: A melee erupted between a group of students and police officers on Thursday afternoon just blocks away from Times Square after a taxi appeared to have hit a teenager.
As soon as the 16-year-old boy was struck by a cab, a large group of students from Manhattan High School surrounded the vehicle in an effort to get into it and get a hold of the driver. However, having been unsuccessful in doing so, they resorted to kicking the taxi.
Another cab driver, Badal Roy, later told PIX11 that some of the students also jumped on the hood of his car, although his vehicle was not involved in the crash. He said that before all the chaos started, all he did was stop at a red light with two passengers in the back of his taxi. As soon as the attack began, the passengers panicked and fled his cab.
Although the students began shouting something as they started banging on his cab, Roy said that he didn't hear anything because he was busy taking all the precautionary measures to stay safe.
"I was feeling unsafe. I didn’t get out of the car," he told New York Daily News. "I locked the door and stayed inside. I was helpless. I called the police. Who can pay for this damage? I do not own this car, this car belongs to a garage."
A number of school safety agents arrived at the scene and used pepper spray to try and disperse the mob, a witness who was sitting at the Cosmic Diner, located at the corner of the street where the incident took place, said.
“The group that was there when the individual was hit started to get a little rowdy," the customer said. "The more officers that came, the more friends in that group came. Fights started to break out between the police and the folks who were there and so the fights started to spill out almost in a royal rumble sort of way."
The group ignored orders to disperse and started attacking the police officers, five of whom suffered minor injuries. Four Manhattan High School students were arrested for assault.
"Officers had to collectively go after certain individuals," one eyewitness said.
Video footage from the scene showed that the taxi did not run over the 16-year-old boy but, instead, he was the one who ran out into the 52nd Street and 8th Avenue at 2.40 p.m. and crashed into the side of the cab.
The teen was transported to Mount Sinai West with non-life threatening injuries and is now reportedly in a stable condition.