by wildcherry on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 | News, World

A New York City police sergeant shot a man to death this morning in Times Square during a crackdown on street vendors. The shooting occurred at a crowded corner of 46th St. and Broadway. The incident leaves a dead body outside Marriott Marquis hotel.

The slain man was not immediately identified. Officers suspected him and his partner were working a scam in which they would approach tourists, ask them their names, then write their names on the CDs and demand payment of $10.

The suspect had been wanted for assault in the Bronx, but the officer approached him because he was recognized as an aggressive panhandler, authorities said. There were 27 live rounds left in his gun, which had been reported stolen in Virginia, authorities said.

The Associated Press and others are reporting that the victim was killed. The suspect had fled as the police officer was investigating the sale of counterfeit CD’s. At least two shots were fired hitting the suspect and also shattering a window.

A plainclothes cop chased a Times Square scam artist through sidewalks crowded with holiday shoppers and tourists Thursday, exchanging gunfire that shattered Broadway theater and gift shop windows, before killing the suspect near a landmark hotel, police said. No one else was injured.

The 25-year-old suspect was believed to be conning tourists along Broadway and 46th Street when he was recognized just before noon by a sergeant who runs a task force that monitors aggressive panhandling, chief NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

The officer approached and asked the suspect and another man for identification, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. One of the men took off running into the streets and through the Marriott Marquis hotel’s passenger drop-off area, Browne said.

The sergeant pursued, and the man turned and fired with a stolen Mac-10 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 arm and killing him, Kelly said.

Dave Kinmahan, 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,” Kinmahan said. He said he thought, “Is this real or this a movie?”

The hotel is located in the Broadway theater district and near the heart of Times Square. The Marquis Theatre, where “White Christmas” is now playing, is in the hotel. Bullets from the gunfight shattered the window of the “Broadway Baby” gift shop and a side window of the box office on the street, police said.

Dozens of police officers surrounded the popular hotel, taping off the valet parking area as tourists and shoppers stopped to watch the commotion. Kathleen Duffy, a spokeswoman for New York City Marriott Hotels, said the shooting took place in a taxi pickup and drop-off area.

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