Hundreds of frenzied Knicks fans skirmished with cops in a running pitched battle along 42nd St. early Sunday morning — hurling bottles at police and even trying to tip over a school bus after the Knicks captured the NBA championship Saturday night.
Cops arrested 63 people during the mayhem. The NYPD reported four people shot or stabbed and 10 police officers attacked, with one punched in the face and another hit with a glass bottle.
Scores of fans clambered on top of and inside eight yellow school buses in the middle of the street at 42nd St. and Ninth Ave. Police repeatedly drove the wild fans off of the buses, but without enough manpower to make arrests, would then back off, retreating to the nearby intersection, each time after which the fans again swarmed the vehicles.
The roughly 100 police were vastly outnumbered by the crowd — not just those on the buses but by thousands of others on the streets around them.
At one point, around 2 a.m., scores of fans starting rocking one of the buses, trying to tip it over. The cops came charging back down 42nd St. and, like a block at the rim by OG Anunoby, prevented the tip-over — but not before the rabid fans ripped off the vehicle’s hood. Many of the other buses’ hoods, if not completely torn off, could be seen propped open.
The out-of-control revelry took a darker turn after 2 a.m., when a 17-year-old boy was shot in the foot and one of the school buses parked in Times Square was lit ablaze.
The teen was shot at 42nd St. and Broadway just after 2 a.m. and taken to Bellevue Hospital, cops said. Three people were taken into custody for questioning and police recovered a gun. An NYPD vehicle had to take the teen to the hospital because the crowd made ambulance access to 42nd St. impossible, police said.
In addition to all the bottles that were flying, someone in one of the buses threw a metal first-aid box from inside it at a Daily News reporter.
The buses were being used to ferry World Cup fans from Manhattan to MetLife Stadium, since 42nd St. was shut down to traffic on game day. Five of those buses were damaged by revelers hitting them with bats or setting fires, cops said.
“What should have been a moment of shared pride instead resulted in vandalism, destruction, and behavior that put lives at risk,” said Susan Donahue, a spokeswoman for the bus company, First Student. “The attacks and takeovers of our buses and the safety threats faced by our drivers, who were forced to abandon their buses and under NYPD instruction to flee the scene to protect their safety is troubling.”
“We are working closely with law enforcement and city officials to investigate these incidents, assess the full extent of the damage and hold those responsible accountable,” she added.
After the stirring championship win, revved-up Knicks rooters roaming through Midtown West around Madison Square Garden vandalized city property, including multiple police and fire vehicles.
Fans climbed scaffolding and traffic lights, with one man doing pull-ups on a light pole’s arm at 32nd St. in Korea Town as the crowd counted along out loud to his reps. Others clambered aboard a moving fire truck on 34th St.
Around 12:15 a.m. near 42nd St. and Eighth Ave., a group swarmed a school bus, ripping off its stop sign and smashing the fender with what appeared to be a metal pole, video showed. Around the same time a few streets away, a large crowd of people reportedly jumped on an ambulance on W. 37th St. and Ninth Ave, blocking its way.
Cops said the crowds damaged five NYPD vehicles, smashing them with bats and jumping on them.
Barry Williams/New York Daily News
A man rips a stop sign off of a school bus on W. 42nd St. in Manhattan after the Knicks defeated the Spurs Saturday. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Video posted online showed police arresting a woman who had climbed atop an Amazon vehicle near MSG.
Even before the game’s first half ended, multiple people had already been arrested throughout the city, including for assault and disorderly conduct, NYPD officials said.
The charges against those arrested include assault on a police officer, weapon possession, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration, cops said.
Andrew Okinyi, 28, was arrested for assault on an officer on W. 33rd St. and Ninth Ave., police said. Though cops list him as living in Arlington, Tex., it’s not clear if that is his most recent address.
At least two watch parties in Brooklyn were shut down mid-game by police after the crowds got too large, with cops saying one of them was blocking traffic on Fulton St.
Earlier, with the Knicks tantalizingly in sight of their first NBA crown in more than 50 years, Mayor Mamdani had urged fans to keep things civil ahead of Game 5.
“As we celebrate, be responsible, look out for one another, stay safe, be smart, and make this a night that reflects the very best of our city. Let’s go Knicks,” the mayor posted on social media.
Cops were out in force in an attempt to contain the anticipated chaos. As with the several recent past games in this Knicks’ electrifying playoff run, the NYPD established a frozen zone around Madison Square Garden, where fans thronged around massive screens streaming the game happening in San Antonio, Texas.
But the mayhem as of early Sunday was already exceeding what happened after Wednesday’s Game 4, when, the NYPD said, crowds north of MSG grew to about 10,000 people and “became increasingly destructive.”
The NYPD used that same language to describe the scene after Game 5.
After Game 4, cops arrested 56 people then in the area between Fifth and Eighth Aves. and 10 police officers were injured, according to the NYPD. Videos online showed Knicks fans stomping on Citi Bikes, climbing street lamps, shattering windows and attacking taxi cabs. One of the injured cops was hit by a thrown bottle, police said.
Also on Wednesday, a 17-year-old boy was beaten into a coma by an assailant who had been screaming “Spurs in seven!” outside a bar about two blocks away from MSG, on W. 35th St. near Eighth Ave. The attacker, who was wearing a referee-style jersey with black and white vertical stripes, has not been caught.
With Rocco Parascandola
