Fireworks? Gunfire? Anybody know what that was in the #eastvillage NYC a minute ago?— Tom Cunniff (@tomcunniff) November 11, 2018
An EVG reader writes in about an incident that occurred yesterday afternoon on Third Avenue shortly before 4.
The reader was on the northwest corner at Ninth Street "when we heard a series of pops, that sounded like gunshots, from a block or two south. We couldn’t see down that way, because of the angle, and because there’s scaffolding up there. People started running north, trying to scatter."
Several people, including the reader, took refuge in a nearby shop, where the employee locked the front door. After a few minutes: "We peeked out, and everything was back to normal, almost immediately. People were walking, and it was like nothing ever happened. After a couple of minutes, we came out. There were a couple of cop cars around, a block or two south, but clearly it hadn’t been a shooting."
The Citizen app had the following sequence...
People who experienced this are curious to learn more about what happened. Was it a bunch of dumb kids with some fireworks? Part of some kind of student art show? Disgruntled Jets fans? Or did someone have a more malicious intent?
Per the reader: "The rapidity of it – the moments of panic, followed by the swift return ... to normalcy, as if nothing had transpired – was surreal, out of a Wallace Shawn play."