Gang-related attack kills 3 in shootout at a Brooklyn bar

NEW YORK — Four people opened fire at a bar in New York City’s Brooklyn borough early Sunday, killing three and wounding nine others in what appeared to be a gang-related attack that sent patrons diving for cover and running for the exits.

Police said the shooters used 9 mm and .45-caliber firearms after a “dispute” at the bar, Taste of the City Lounge at 903 Franklin Ave. in Crown Heights, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, around 3:30 a.m. Nine men and three women were shot, their ages ranging from 19 to 61, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Sunday.

Three men were killed, ages 19, 27 and 35, police said. Around 10:20 a.m., police wheeled out a gurney bearing what appeared to be a body in a black bag. Officers loaded it into a black-and-white city van.

The nine people who were wounded were treated at hospitals for injuries that Tisch said were for now “non-life-threatening.” No suspects had been arrested as of Sunday afternoon.

At a news conference at City Hall on Sunday, Mayor Eric Adams said detectives were still searching for the shooters, and asked that any witnesses call the police. “Gun violence of this magnitude, it really scars a community and a city,” he said.

One of those killed was Jamel Andre Childs, 35. His brother, Richard Childs Jr., described him as “a loyal friend and great son, brother and uncle.”

Richard Childs said that on his daughter’s recent graduation day, Jamel and their mother had shown up to surprise her. A photograph of them shows Jamel next to his niece, beaming. “He did not have any kids but loved my kids like they were his own,” the brother said.

“Jamel wanted to save the world,” he added. “He wanted to save everyone.”

Some of the victims are believed to have been part of the shootout, but not all.

“There had to have been innocent victims,” Tisch said.

Adams said the city had dispatched community crisis management teams, whose members seek to forestall violence or de-escalate tensions on the street, particularly among gangs. The goal is to prevent retaliation, Adams said.

Taste of the City, a restaurant and bar that serves Caribbean food, is about half a block from a transit police station. On its website and on social media, the lounge advertises Haitian tacos, two-for-one drinks on Friday nights, DJs and dancing.

A neighbor, Rajawn Philips, 49, called it a neighborhood scourge. “A melting pot of violence, ignorance and liquor,” he said.

The violence there erupted with little warning early Sunday.

Akheme Gordon, 28, was out with his friends when two men in the lounge began to argue, his mother, Norma Gordon, said in a brief interview.

Soon after, she said, Akheme Gordon was shot. His mother said he was still in the hospital.

“My son was the one who squashed it, told them to stop,” Norma Gordon said. “After they stopped for a while, one of the guys started firing.”

Marie Desir, 40, said she had gone to the bar at 1 a.m. with a friend. Two hours later, they were sitting at a table when they heard gunshots. People scrambled to the floor, she said. Desir ran for the exit, leaving behind her wallet and her phone.

“I was like, ‘Oh, God, I’m dying today,’” she said. “I ran out to save my life.”

At 8:45 a.m., she remained at the scene, crying and looking for her friend, who had been separated from her in the chaos.

“I want to know what happened to my friend,” she said. His car was still where he had parked it.

It had seemed like a normal night at Taste of the City, said James Jones, who left the establishment around 3 a.m. Not long after he arrived to his home across the street, a friend called and said something terrible had happened. He returned to the street and saw carnage.

“People over here shot, people over there shot,” Jones said.

Others stood outside near the bar, some shaking and seemingly in shock, he said.

Philips said he had seen bystanders trying to resuscitate an acquaintance of his from the neighborhood, as well as a young woman who had been shot in the face and a young man shot in the leg who was crying out for help.

The shooting happened as President Donald Trump, who has declared a crime emergency in Washington, D.C., and deployed the National Guard and federal agents there, has threatened to do the same in Democratic-controlled cities such as Chicago and New York. And it was the second time in less than a month that New Yorkers saw multiple people fatally shot in a single incident. On July 28, a gunman from Las Vegas drove to Manhattan, walked into an office tower on Park Avenue and killed four people in what appeared to be a targeted attack.

In New York City — as in Washington — crime has dropped steadily from the levels recorded during the pandemic, according to Police Department data. The city had the fewest shooting episodes and victims on record in the first seven months of this year; July had only 75 shootings, breaking a record low for that month set in 2017.

Crime has nonetheless become a defining issue in this year’s heated mayoral race. Candidates have used residents’ fear of violence to go after state Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary and remains at the top of the polls. He has received criticism for his past remarks about defunding the police — which he has said he no longer supports — and has drawn the attention of Trump, who has considered using his influence to stop Mamdani from winning in November.

Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York who is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary, took a veiled swipe at Mamdani on Sunday in a social media post.

“Public safety is, and always has been, Job 1,” his account on X said. “This isn’t the time to defund or dismantle the police.”

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Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate and anti-crime crusader, said in a social media post that “Cuomo’s pro-criminal laws created this mess, and Mamdani’s radical agenda would only make it worse.” He continued: “The status quo has failed. I’m the only candidate with the courage to restore law and order in NYC.”

Adams, a former Police Department captain who is running a long-shot independent campaign after facing now-dropped federal corruption charges, has emphasized his law-enforcement bona fides. Last week, he promised he would seek the state’s permission to forcibly remove drug users from the city’s streets.

On Sunday morning, Mamdani was at First Baptist Church of Crown Heights, where congregants prayed for the victims.

“There are families not too many streets away in this very neighborhood who woke up this morning with their lives devastated by gun violence,” Mamdani said. “In a moment like this, with three of our neighbors killed and many more shot, grace may feel impossible.”

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The 71st Precinct, which includes the block where the shooting occurred, recorded three shootings between the start of the year and Aug. 10, compared with eight during the same period last year. Despite the drop in shootings in the neighborhood, residents who live near Taste of the City said they have long feared violence like the kind that erupted Sunday morning.

One such incident took place around 4 a.m. in front of Taste of the City last November, police said. Sharief Gary, 39, was charged with attempted murder in the shooting of a 28-year-old, who was struck in the back and the arm.

“This was coming,” said James Brown, 58, who has lived in Crown Heights for 30 years and recalled the shooting last year. “They should have closed it down a long time ago.”

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Taste of the City, which announces itself with a square, brown sign with large yellow letters, is a one-story spot with a dance floor and high- and low-top tables. The building is on a low-rise block near a tax services business, a small medical center and a supermarket, about half a mile from Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

A list of rules posted on the bar’s Instagram page said it has “zero tolerance for violence, foolery or disruptive behavior.” The bar said it has bouncers on weekends and forbids weapons. It also forbids sweatpants, hooded sweatshirts and masks after 9 p.m., and denies entry after 11 p.m. to anyone younger than 25.

The police will interview the bouncers about the shooting, Tisch said.

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Midmorning on Sunday, the bar posted a statement on Instagram saying it was “devastated” by the shooting and was cooperating fully with the investigation. “The safety and well-being of our guests and community has always been our top priority,” the statement said, adding, “We ask for compassion, respect and privacy for those grieving as we stand together with our community in mourning.”

Officers recovered at least 42 shell casings from several guns after the shooting, the police said. A separate firearm was discovered at the corner of Eastern Parkway and Bedford Avenue, and investigators believe it may be related to the shooting.

Desir, the bar patron who was separated from her friend, waited outside the building for him after the shooting. Hours later, they found each other, and by late morning they were sitting together in his car.

Desir said she had never been to Taste of the City before that day.

“First time,” she said. “And last time.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.