Two children in New York, a 12-year-old and an 11-year-old girl, threw glass bottles of alcohol from the 32nd floor of a hotel near Times Square and injured a woman below. According to the New York Post, the incident took place on Friday and it led to temporarily shutting down the street. The two children were staying with their guardians at the InterContinental New York Times Square hotel. While the 12-year-old was charged with reckless endangerment as a juvenile, the 11-year-old was not charged because of her age, the outlet reported.
Citing police sources, the Post reported that loud bangs of the glass smashing into the street caused a brief panic as some mistook them for gunfire. "I can understand why people thought it was gunshots. When something falls 32 stories and hits the ground it will make a loud noise," a law enforcement officer said.
The two kids tossed glass shooters of booze from the 32nd-floor window. Hotel workers reportedly said that the bottles came crashing from the sky on the Eighth Avenue side of the hotel in front of Shake Shack. On the street, a 24-year-old was injured. She suffered a cut to her head, police said. Following the incident, the woman was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
"It sounded like an explosion or gunshots," one passerby told an officer. "Throwing a bottle from the 34th floor, you could literally kill somebody," said another man, who narrowly missed being hit by a bottle. He went on to describe the bottle-throwing idea as "insane" and said that the cops arrested what looked like three kids and two adults.
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According to several street vendors, the children apparently felt inspired by Hizzoner's ceremonial confetti toss and started throwing glass bottles. "NYPD had the entire area shut down for over an hour," a parking attendant working at a lot across the street from the hotel told the publication. He added that customers at the lot were unable to leave the parking area due to the bottle-tossing incident.
Separately, an employee working at a nearby eatery said that he "thought someone was trying to jump out of the window" and that workers were forced to shelter in place for over three hours. "I thought it was a suicide. Everyone was looking up as I was walking into work," another person at Sugar Factory said.
