Police have now updated the injured to include another man shot, bringing total to 4 shot, and another person stabbed.
Via WXIX:
Two people were shot to death Monday at a carnival celebrating Caribbean culture in the hours before the city’s annual West Indian Day Parade.
The bloodshed came amid unprecedented precautions taken by police to ensure safety at an event routinely marred by violence and a year after an aide to the governor was killed by a stray bullet.
A male in his late teens or early 20s was shot in the chest at around 3:50 a.m. Monday in Brooklyn during J’ouvert, the New York Police Department said. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
A 66-year-old woman was shot in the hand and the arm at the same location and was taken to a hospital in stable condition, police said.
About 25 minutes later, a 22-year-old woman was shot in the head just a block away, police said. She died at a hospital.
Police say they’re investigating whether the shootings are related.
A woman was also stabbed in the area, but police said she refused medical attention.
The NYPD had planned to double the number of officers patrolling the neighborhood where a procession of steel drums and costumed revelers was set to kick off at 4 a.m. for J’ouvert. The department also added 42 new security cameras to watch over an estimated 250,000 revelers and illuminated this year’s celebration with 200 light towers. For the first time, organizers of the parade were required to get a permit.
Police, in conjunction with community groups, also distributed fliers with a blunt message.
“This community will no longer tolerate this violence. Do not shoot anyone. Do not stab anyone,” the leaflets said.
Last year, two were killed, including an aide to Gov. Cuomo. So they even posted these signs saying, “Don’t shoot anyone, don’t stab anyone”. Some didn’t listen.
These were immediately tagged ‘racist’.
“This notice which I witnessed NYPD posting all over is one of the most disgusting, racist, condescending and rude public announcements I have ever heard of,” wrote Anton Gold, a longtime area resident who has celebrated J’Ouvert for years.
“Why are they lumping hundreds of thousands of peaceful J’Ouvert celebrants with gang bangers from Ebbets Field? It’s completely outrageous and the opposite of what the NYPD says they are trying to do,” he added.
“I think this flyer is misleading,” said Prospect-Lefferts Gardens resident Seth Kaplan. “The murder of Carey Gabay was gang-related and unrelated to J’Ouvert. The language and choice of words is insulting.”
The event had violence in prior years as well.