A gang-related gunfight inside a crowded Brooklyn lounge early Sunday left three men dead and nine people, including innocent bystanders, wounded, cops said.
The mass shooting erupted inside the crowded Taste of the City Lounge on Franklin Ave. near Carroll St. in Crown Heights just before 3:30 a.m., cops said.
“We believe that there were up to four shooters involved in this incident. Our crime scene investigators have now recovered shell casings from multiple guns,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press briefing at City Hall. “The shell casings appear to be from 9-mm and .45-caliber weapons.”
“We was just in there,” said clubgoer Marie Desir, a 40-year-old mother of two who fled the shooting. “I heard a few gunshots and then … People on the floor, running, trying to save their life just like I did.”
She said she hit the floor when the shots started.
“I ducked down and after that I found a way to get out,” she said. “I laid down on the floor first and when I found a way to get out, I just got out because I was right there close to the door.”
She returned to the club hours later because one of her friends, Guerby Tida, 32, went missing in the mayhem. He showed up at the cub, where his car was parked, midday Sunday, leading to an emotional reunion after Desir worried he was among the dead.
“I’m okay,” he told her. “Thank god everything’s good.”
The shooting is believed to be gang related but Tisch declined to provide further details on motive, citing the ongoing investigation.
An argument inside the crowded club led to the shooting, she said. Some of the victims are believed to have been involved in the clash while others are likely innocent bystanders.
“What happened in Crown Heights this morning was a tragic senseless act of violence,” Tisch said. “The club did have bouncers and we are working now to identify those bouncers and interview them.”
Cops recovered a firearm close by the lounge near Bedford Ave. and Eastern Parkway that may be connected to the shooting, she said. Investigators are reviewing surveillance video and no arrests have been made so far.
Rajawn Philips, 40, who works in the smoke shop next door, said he heard the shots and checked the camera feed from outside his store.
“I saw people running,” he said. “I looked out the door. I saw the intensity of the running.”
A 35-year-old man and a 27-year-old man died at area hospitals while a 19-year-old man died at the scene, Tisch said.
Six men and three women were wounded but survived, the oldest 61 and the youngest 27, according to police sources. They were all hospitalized and are expected to recover.
“As you get to the door, you see shot victims,” said Philips, who left his smoke shop to check on the scene. “A girl was shot in the face. This guy shot in the leg. Another guy out here this morning shot in the a–.”
He saw medics doing CPR and chest compressions on patrons.
It’s the second shooting at the club in less than a year. A 28-year-old man survived being shot in the back and arm in front of the club about 4 a.m. Nov. 17, according to police.
The victim told cops he was standing outside the lounge when two men he didn’t know approached him and started arguing with him, cop sources said. One of them whipped out a gun and opened fire.
In February, cops released surveillance footage of a suspect they were still looking for in that shooting and asked the public’s help identifying him.
Taste of the City Lounge serves Caribbean fusion cuisine and has a full bar with hookahs, DJs and live music.
Philips said security at the lounge is tight but that’s note enough to stop it from being a “problematic place.”
“Every night it’s some type of altercation so I’m surprised that three people died there but I’m also not surprised at the same time,” he said. “This is not new. It’s the normal.”
“Every single victim of violence, particularly gun violence, is one too many and last night’s mass shooting reminds us all the work that we must continue to do,” Mayor Adams said Sunday. “This is the second (mass shooting) within weeks and we don’t want this to turn into a normal course of doing business.”
On June 28, Shane Tamura opened fire with an assault rifle in a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper, murdering an NYPD officer and three others before killing himself.
The violence comes as the city has seen significant drops in violent crimes through Aug. 10 compared to the same period last year, including a 24% drop in murders and a 21% drop in shootings.
“We have the lowest number of shooting incidents and shooting victims seven months into the year that we’ve seen on record in the city of New York,” Tisch said.
“Something like this is, of course, thank God, an anomaly. And it’s a terrible thing that happened this morning but we’re going to investigate and get to the bottom of what went down.”
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