Multiple people are wounded in a shooting at the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood on Monday afternoon (Picture: Peter Gerber)
Five people were shot in an ‘intentionally’ at a parade celebrating Caribbean culture in New York City on the Labor Day holiday.
Gunfire erupted shortly after 2.30pm on Monday on the West Indian American Day Parade route, at the 300 block of Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, police told the New York Post.
A man was shot in the head, another in the torso, another in the arm, sources told the newspaper. Another victim was shot in the wrist.
Victims were taken to nearby hospitals to be treated.
The annual West Indian American Day Parade was underway in Brooklyn on Monday at the time of the mass shooting (Picture: Rex Features)
Police signal for revelers to disperse after a shooting during the West Indian American Day Parade on Monday in Brooklyn (Picture: AP)
‘Today one person intentionally going after a group of people tried to ruin the day for everybody,’ said NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell.
The mass shooting was ‘not random’, according to police.
Parade attendee Jalissa Bailey cried and called the incident ‘terrible’.
‘How can someone have the heart to fire a gun around so many people – babies, children, the elderly,’ she told the New York Post.
Police move revelers from the street after a shooting on Eastern Parkway, near the corner of Franklin Avenue, during the West Indian American Day Parade (Picture: AP)
Police officers walk as revelers take part in the J’ouvert on the day of the annual West Indian American Day parade in Brooklyn (Picture: Reuters)
‘I know this parade has a history of violence, but things have been peaceful in recent years, and we got to hoping that there was enough security in place that maybe that was over with.’
At least one of the victims is in such critical condition that they may die, the newspaper reported.
A suspect was seen fleeing westbound on Eastern Parkway in the direction of Classon Avenue. He remained on the loose on Monday afternoon.
Police are no longer considering it an active shooter situation.
Additional police units were deployed to manage crowd control and assist with the investigation (Picture: Peter Gerber)
Close to one million people gathered for the 47th annual parade honoring Caribbean heritage and culture in the Crown Heights neighborhood.
Last week, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said that a ‘storng police presence’ was planned following violence on the route last year with at least two people getting shot and a third victim being sliced in the arm.
This year’s law enforcement efforts included security screenings with 300 handheld metal detectors, he said.
West Indian American Day Carnival Association board member Jelanie DeShong had said that the goal of this year’s event was to introduce Caribbean customs to people who are new to it as well as those who have experienced it before.
People participate in the annual West Indian American Day parade in the Brooklyn borough of New York City (Picture: Reuters)
‘We’re just trying to put on a commercial for those new and old to the culture to come and enjoy,’ said DeShong, according to The New York Times.
‘This weekend is a love story that we put together every year for the Caribbean community and the larger Caribbean culture.’
The parade route, which is decorated with the colors green, yellow and red, runs for nearly two miles from Rochester Avenue to the Brooklyn Museum. Some marchers don sequins and feathers and dance to Afrobeat music.
It started in the 1930s by Trinidadian immigrant Jessie Waddle as an indoor Carnival gathering in Harlem.
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