#Police arrest suspect in fatal shooting of woman in NYC’s Flatiron District

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Police on the scene of Friday’s fatal shooting in the Flatiron District.
Christopher Sadowski

Police have arrested the alleged shooter who gunned down a Connecticut teenager and injured her boyfriend in a senseless murder just after midnight Friday in the Flatiron District.

Ruddy Osias, 27, of Bayswater, Queens, has been charged with the killing of Erica Lopez, 19, in what her boyfriend, Andres Arias, 21, described as a shooting over a minor bar dispute.

Osias faces charges of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon for allegedly shooting the Connecticut couple after they reportedly got into an argument with strangers they had befriended while partying at the 230 Fifth Rooftop bar.

Lopez and Arias were celebrating Arias’ cousin’s boyfriend’s birthday at the venue when they began chatting and drinking with a group of six men and women inside.

But tempers flared when Lopez said one of the women they had just met groped her and their other female friend without their consent, according to Arias. When he confronted them about the accusation, an argument ensued, he said.

The couple then left the club, but the group followed them out, Arias told the Daily Mail. As Arias and Lopez were walking near Madison Square Park, the group began yelling at them again from two vehicles.

At one point, Osias hopped out of the car and began opening fire in the typically quiet, wealthy neighborhood.

Arias said Lopez tried to shove him to safety — possibly saving his life as he was only grazed by a bullet.

The two were both taken to Bellevue Hospital, where Arias learned his girlfriend had passed away.

“I told the nurses to leave the room, then I started screaming and crying,” Arias said.