Police accidentally wound two bystanders in Times Square shooting (VIDEO)

GlobalPost

Two bystanders were injured after police opened fire on a suspect on a busy Saturday night in New York City's Times Square.

Officers were confronted by an agitated man on foot who was weaving through the crowded sidewalks and seemed to be "attempting to be hit by cars", Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters.

Police said the 35-year-old man appeared to reach into his pockets and pull out a firearm and started "simulated shooting the officers," Kelly said.

Two officers fired shots at the man and accidentally hit two bystanders instead.

One unidentified woman, 54, was shot in the leg, breaking two bones in her calf.

Another 35-year-old woman was grazed by a bullet in the buttocks.

Both women were taken to the hospital with injuries that are not life threatening.

The shooting happened just before 10pm at the intersection of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue in Times Square.

A witness took shaky cell phone video of the incident that captured screams as shots were fired into the crowd.

A man appeared to run erratically through the intersection as police tried to keep him out of the street.

"It was like he wanted to get hit," one eyewitness, Fabiola Ferere, 30, of Queens, told The New York Post.

"The police literally could not control him. He had to be on something, like narcotics or bath salts," Ferere said.

Police were able to bring the man down with a Taser and he was taken to Belleview hospital.

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