Approved ~ MJM
An Ohio man was busted with an AK-47 assault rifle and a gas mask inside a Times Square subway station Friday afternoon, law enforcement sources said.
Saadiq Teague, 18, was taken into custody without incident around 12:30 p.m. on the mezzanine level of the subway station off the A, C and E line, the sources said.
“I love you all!” he shouted to reporters Friday night, as detectives walked him out of Transit District 1 Precinct in Columbus Circle, and into a court-bound NYPD van.
Sources say the teen was sitting down and charging his cell phone inside the station with the weapon out next to him in plain sight when uniformed transit cops spotted him.
Moments earlier, Teague had pulled the firearm from a bag, sources said.
The AK-47 was unloaded, but the teen had a fully loaded magazine in his backpack, along with the gas mask, according to the sources.
He told police that he thought carrying an unloaded rifle with the ammunition stored separately is legal in New York City, a high-ranking police source said.
It’s unclear why he was in the city, police told The Post.
Authorities brought Teague to the NYPD’s Transit District 1 where they were questioning him, sources said.
Straphangers were stunned by the news that someone was armed with an assault weapon inside the busy station.
“Oh my God,” A train rider Victoria Campos, 36, of New Jersey said. “In New York it’s not safe anymore.”
Continued…
