Cops: 16-year-old a suspect in Bryant Park shooting

A 16-year-old boy opened fire at the Bryant Park ice rink Saturday night after he tried to rob a man's coat, police said, partially paralyzing a teenager and injuring a second victim.

A 14-year-old was struck in the back and was left partially paralyzed, a police source said Sunday.

A second victim, a 20-year-old man, was hit in the shoulder when the teen shooter tried to rob him of his jacket, police said.

Police identified the shooter as Cory Dunton, 16, of 645 Westchester Ave. in the Bronx. He was charged with one count of attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon.

Bryant Park, just behind the main public library building in midtown Manhattan, and its blood-splattered ice rink were closed Saturday night but reopened Sunday morning.

The violence at about 11 p.m. sent skaters fleeing.

Authorities said the shooter had approached the 20-year-old man at the ice rink and demanded his coat, saying, "I like your jacket."

The man refused to hand it over, police said.

The shooter left, but returned soon after and started firing, police said.

The victims were taken to Bellevue Hospital Center.

Police said the 20-year-old was the intended target and that he did not know the suspect. They said the 14-year-old boy was just an innocent bystander.

Joe Carella, a spokesman for Bryant Park Corp., the not-for-profit company that manages the park, said there were about 300 people on the ice at the time of the shooting.

"It was terrifying; my legs were shaking," Raghuram Krishnamachari, who was dining with his family in a restaurant overlooking the park when they heard three shots being fired, told The Associated Press.

"We had a view of the whole thing, we saw it happening, and the first thing that came to my mind is, 'It's a crazy person with a machine gun and all he wants to do is kill as many people as possible,' " the Brooklyn man said.

Krishnamachari, 29, and his family barricaded themselves in a bathroom at a glassed-in restaurant and called 911.

Sunday, the rink opened and the park was again filled with skaters and other visitors.

"I'm surprised -- absolutely surprised," said Allen Targhi, a Manhattan shoe salesman who comes to the park almost daily. "I expect peace and love and happiness in this park; it's the reason I come."

With Dan Rivoli and The AP