Ithaca, N.Y. — A man is wanted by police for shooting two men Friday afternoon during an argument near the rear parking lot of the Ithaca Fire Department Headquarters, police said.
Officers were called just after 3 p.m. to the parking lot in the 300 block of West State Street/MLK Street in Ithaca after multiple people reported hearing gunshots in the area, according to a news release issued by Ithaca police Friday night.
Responding officers were told that two men had suffered gunshot wounds and the suspected shooter had fled into an apartment in the 300 block of West Seneca Street, police said.
Police set up a perimeter around the apartment and a section of West Seneca Street was closed to traffic, according to the release. An alert was also issued by Tompkins County for the public to avoid the area.
Police later learned the suspected shooter had fled the apartment prior to the perimeter being set up, according to the release.
The suspected shooter is a Black man, between 6-feet and 6-feet-2-inches tall, with a thin build and long thin braided hair. He was last seen wearing a blue long sleeve shirt, blue jeans, a baseball cap and a bookbag, police said.
The two men shot were taken to a local trauma center with injuries that do not appear to be life-threatening, police said. Ithaca police did not reveal where in the men’s bodies they were shot.
Police believe the two men who were shot and the suspected shooter were in a verbal altercation before the shooting.
State police, and the Ithaca-Tompkins Specialized Response Team and Crisis Negotiation Team were called in to assist with the investigation, police said.
The Ithaca Fire Department, the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office and Bangs ambulance also assisted at the West State Street and West Seneca Street crime scenes, police said. The Ithaca Fire Department Headquarters is located at 310 West Green St.
Ithaca police ask anyone with information about the shooting or the suspected shooter’s whereabouts to contact them at 607-330-0000 or by email at www.cityofithaca.org/ipdtips.
Staff writer James McClendon covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? Reach him at 914-204-2815 or jmcclendon@syracuse.com.
Ad Choices