Suspect Still at Large in Midtown Shooting of Jets Cornerback Kris Boyd

As if the New York Jets football season weren’t difficult enough, cornerback Kris Boyd was shot and critically wounded outside a midtown restaurant early Sunday morning, Nov. 16.

Boyd’s condition has since been upgraded to stable. Jets coach Aaron Glenn said Boyd is ”going to come out of this thing really, really well.”

The initial police reports had few details, just that there’d been a shooting. “At approximately 2:06 a.m., in front of 156 W. 38th St., in the confines of the Midtown South Precinct, an unidentified individual discharged a firearm, striking a 29-year-old male victim in the abdomen. The unidentified individual fled the location on foot traveling eastbound on West 38th Street to parts unknown.

“The sought individual is described as male, medium complexion. He was last seen wearing a black cap, black sweatshirt, black pants, multi-colored sneakers, and carrying a black bookbag.”

This above address, which is just east of Seventh Avenue, belongs to Sei Less, a popular Asian fusion restaurant that’s also something of a celebrity hotspot. A December 2022 GQ article on the eatery—where none other than the then-still “swagger” man, Mayor Eric Adams, had also been spotted—was headlined “How Sei Less Became Your Favorite Rapper’s New Favorite Restaurant.”

This explains Boyd and his friends’ presence at what is an otherwise unremarkable block of the Garment District. Or at least, unremarkable on the surface, for the mysteries and secrets that still lurk in this area, especially at night, when the rag merchants and dress pushers are home, have long been manifold.

As attractive as Sei Less may be on the inside, it appears nothing of the sort from the outside today, as its entrance is completely under the shadow of scaffolding that subsumes the southeast portion of the block in darkness and doubt. Is this the right place? Are you sure?

Since the shooting, cops have put together a narrative.

Boyd, along with two other Jets players and a third friend went to the restaurant for a birthday celebration.

Cops said this crew of four parked their car, a Cadillac Escalade, on the street nearby and started walking toward the restaurant.

As they were walking, four persons on the sidewalk, all of them unknown to Boyd and his party, began insulting and taunting Boyd and his friends about their clothing.

The strangers, cops said, spat something like, “You think you’re better than us?”

Boyd and his friends ignored the strangers and continued inside, police said.

After about 10 minutes inside Sei Less, Boyd and his friends felt uncomfortable in the restaurant and decided to leave.

As they did so, cops said, the same four strangers were still on the sidewalk outside, and they again started to insult Boyd and his friends.

The two groups started arguing and shoving one another until one of the strangers drew a gun, which he fired twice, wounding Boyd in the abdomen.

Surveillance video of the attack shows the shooter running about two blocks on foot while talking on a phone before getting into a white BMW driven by another unknown individual.

According to cops, the bullet that struck Boyd went into his lung and lodged in his pulmonary artery. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital.

Posting from the hospital on Wednesday, Nov. 19, Boyd wrote, “God is real, God is powerful! I’m sorry I have no words at the moment. Just grateful! I’m coming along, starting to breathe on my own now. Sincerely appreciate everyone!”

A native of Gilmer, Texas, Boyd played four years for the University of Texas Longhorns, and was a seventh-round pick in the 2019 NFL draft. Boyd played four years for the Minnesota Vikings. In 2023, he moved briefly to the Arizona Cardinals; by that October, he’d been released, and signed with the Houston Texans.

Boyd signed a one-year contract with the Jets this past March but has been on the injured reserve list and hasn’t yet played this season.