© Lincoln RochaThe police approached a man wielding a knife on Saturday on Seventh Avenue.
But it was quickly apparent this was no celluloid fantasy.
As the man fled, weaving through crowds and darting between cars, he threatened bystanders, witnesses said. The police gave chase, eventually cornering him near 37th Street and Seventh Avenue and killing him in a fusillade of bullets.
No identification for the man was released right away.
"He was swinging at people as he ran," said Jobby Nogver, 17, visiting from Boston. Mr. Nogver watched as about a dozen police officers finally surrounded the man and shots were fired. "I can't tell you how many shots," he said. "It was a lot."
The police confirmed that the man was killed but would not comment on how many shots the officers fired, and the department did not immediately provide a description of what prompted the shots.
The confrontation began on the pedestrian plaza near the Hard Rock Cafe on 43rd Street and Seventh Avenue, in the heart of Times Square.
Lincoln Rocha, 28, and his wife, Priscilla Rocha, 28, visiting from Brazil, were walking toward Toys "R" Us when they saw three uniformed police officers talking to a man on the sidewalk.
The conversation took a sudden turn, Mr. Rocha said, when the man stepped into the street and pulled out a knife.
"Right when he pulled the knife, the cops drew their guns," he said. The man was cursing the police, he said, and the police officers kept yelling at the man to drop the weapon.
© Marcus Yam / The New York TimesCrime scene investigators at the site of the confrontation between the police and an armed man on Seventh Avenue on Saturday.
One witness, Brielle Basso, 19, said, "Once we saw what was happening, we just started running."
By this time, there were dozens of officers in pursuit, both on foot and in police cars and vans.
Jeffrey Gibson, 39, watched the chase unfold. Each time an officer got close, he said, the man would swing his knife. The man dodged each vehicle that tried to block his path.
Karon Rakes, 43, from Cleveland, said the man was taunting the police.
"He just started saying, 'Come on, come get me,' " she said.
Mrs. Rocha said that when people realized the police had their guns drawn, they fled, crouching in doorways, behind newsstands and near parked cars.
"I almost had a heart attack," she said. "Everyone started running."
Out-of-towners on a red double-decker tourist bus gawked at the unfolding drama, a bit more of the New York experience than they had bargained for. Nervous onlookers peered out from restaurant and shop windows, the flashing lights of Times Square lending a bizarre atmosphere, which grew even wilder as a crowd gathered attracted by the commotion.
Times Square, known as the crossroads of the world, is no stranger to odd scenes. But the chase Saturday was unlike anything in recent memory.
As the police pursued the man, pointing pistols with double-handed grips, they were trailed by dozens of people with cameras and cellular phones held above their heads, Mr. Rocha among them.
"Some people were crouching near an office building," Mr. Rocha said. "But others took out the cellphone cameras to try and capture it."
As the man ran, police stretched yellow crime-scene tape across the corner of 37th Street and Seventh Avenue, hoping to create a roadblock, Mr. Nogver said.
At this point, the police began to try and clear away civilians. Some said they were hit by pepper spray, which they said was directed at the man with the knife.
Mr. Nogver said that he saw about a dozen police officers cornering the man on the sidewalk near the Potbelly Sandwich Shop at 37th and Seventh.
He could not clearly see the man, and the next thing he heard were gunshots.
While the police released no details about the victim, some of those who work in the streets in Times Square said they had seen him before. Joshua, 23, who sells tickets to comedy shows, said that he thought the man was a regular in the area who often wore a T-shirt that said "Ninjas killed my family" and asked tourists for money.
Joshua, who declined to give his last name, also said that the man would often dress as a ninja.
Dave Basso, 41, from Cleveland, said that he thought the police had no choice but to shoot the man.
"He was either going to get shot or he was going to take someone hostage," he said.
Aaron Edwards, Michael Schwirtz and Lee Yarosh contributed reporting.
What!! They surrounded the man and still felt threatened enough to kill him. Once upon a time I heard that police aim at the legs, so as not to kill a person, but just incapacitate the person, but that was of course once upon a time. Now it is shoot to kill, first and then ask questions later.
"...about a dozen police officers finally surrounded the man and shots were fired..."