Brazilian tourist shot in Times Square mayhem describes dragging herself to safety after being struck by migrant teen suspect: ‘I was able to stay calm’
The Brazilian tourist who was shot during a botched robbery at a Times Squꦆar😼e retailer described the chaotic incident Friday — including how she dragged herself to the back of the store as blood dripped down her leg.
Tatiele Riberio, 38, was standing near the cash register, texting her husband while holding tennis shoes she planned on buying as a gift when shots rang out at JD Sports on West 42nd Street and Broadway at around 7 p.m. on Thu🎉rsday, .
“I felt a lot of pain but didn’t know where the pain was coming from. It was a scary moment,” she told the station in Portuguese, during an interview from her Midtown hotel bed.
Riberio heard what she thought “sounded like an explosion” and saw smoke out of the corner of her eye, then felt pain and dragged herself to the back of the store.
“There was commotion, people started running and yelling,” she recalled.
“I started checking myself. I looked at my leg and saw blood dripping down. But I was able to stay calm,” she said.
Police said a 15-year-old gunman, a migrant from Venezuela identified as Jesus Alejandro Rivas-Figueroa, opened fire with a .45 caliber handgun when a securit꧙y guard confronted him for allegedly trying to steal clothes from the store.
Riberio said she didn’t even realize she’d been shot until she got to Bellevue Hospital, where she had to get 13 stitches to close up the leg wound.
“It was just at the hospital that I learned that I had been struck by a bullet,” she told the outlet from her room at the Rio Plaza Hotel, about 20 blocks from the store.
Riberio, who was visiting with her mother-in-law, believes it could have happened “anywhere” — and said she plans to return to New York City, one of her favorite destinations for shopping and sightseeing.
“I believe this was just an unfortunate incident, it could have happened anywhere in the world,” Riberio told the outl꧒et.
She is set to head back to Brazil on Saturday.
“S🐲he’s with her mother-in-law. They have been able to remain calm. They told me about what happened in the shop,” hotel manager Berbardo Naval told The Post earlier Friday of Riberio’s condition.
Riberio’s interview came as Rivas-Figueroa – who also allegedly fired at a police officer as he ran off after the shooting — was arrested at a home in Yonkers Friday.
Two other teenagers – a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old – believed to have been in the store 🦩with Rivas-Figueroa were also in custody, with investigators working to determine their exact involvement, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell told reporters Friday afternoon.
The three boys attended school together, Chell෴ added.
