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Violent Start to Labor Day Festivities, 2 Dead

The 48th Annual West Indian Day Parade got off to a violent start during the traditional early-morning festivities of ‘J’Ouvert’ in Crown Heights, with a number of shootings and stabbings that left two people dead in separate incidents.

At around 2:00am a large group reportedly was involved in a brawl at Grand Army Plaza, and when the dust settled police discovered one man with a stab wound and another who was shot in the back. The 24-year-old stabbing victim succumbed to his wounds, while the 21-year-old shooting victim is expected to survive.

No arrests have been made, and police have not indicated any known motive for the stabbing and shooting.

Later, at around 3:40am, on Bedford Avenue and Sullivan Place, a 43-year-old man was shot in the head. He was transported to Kings County Hospital, where he was initially listed in critical condition. He later succumbed to his wounds.

No arrests have been made, and an investigation is ongoing.

At around 4:20am a 39-year-old man was shot twice on Nostrand Avenue and Martense Street. The victim told police that he heard shots fired and suddenly felt pain. He was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.

At around 4:30am a 21-year-old man suffered a graze wound from a gunshot. Police arrived within moments and succeeded in apprehending the shooter, as well as recovering the firearm.

The J’Ouvert march through Flatbush is an annual tradition that starts at 4:00am. It starts at Grand Army Plaza and runs down Flatbush Avenue to Empire Boulevard, Nostrand Avenue and Linden Boulevard. The J’Ouvert Festival is the official lead into the West Indian Day Parade, which kicks off at 11:00am.

The parade is expected to draw as many as 2 million people, according to organizers. The NYPD brings in as many as 1,500 additional police officers to patrol the festivities.

Incident Blotter from the 67th, 71st and 78th Precincts last night:

12:28am – Flatbush and Tilden – Robbery
1:30am – Utica and Carroll – Shots Fired
*2:04am – Grand Army Plaza and Eastern Parkway – Large Group Fighting / 1 Shot & 1 Stabbed / DOA
2:56am – Bedford and Sullivan – Disorderly Group
3:33pm – Franklin and President – Assault
*3:41am – Bedford and Sullivan – Shots Fired / 1 man shot / DOA
3:48am – Flatbush and Lincoln Pl – Police Cruiser involved in a Crash
4:07am – Albany and President – Car Crash with Injuries
4:08am – Tilden and e29th – Shotspotter detected shots fired
4:12am – Utica and Montgomery – Report of a man running with a gun
4:17am – church and e 16th – black male dropped a firearm
4:19am – Nostrand and Linden – Robbery and injuries
*4:20am – Nostrand and Martense – Male Shot
*4:25am – Bedford and Empire – Shots fired / 1 injured / suspect in custody
4:55am – Eastern Parkway and Washington – Child struck by a car

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46 Comments

  • no cops

    I observed on the way to shull (770) around 6am that there was very few police around, it seemed very odd abd ppl had parked in drive ways, by fire hydrants, bus stops abd even double parked but there were no policeto be seen… I think the city is afraid of looking aggressive..

  • Enough

    We are all in danger during this parade. School is closed can’t let our kids out ,we are prisoners in our own homes , stores have to close early worried for your own safety. The parade brings danger to our community, where are all the big politicians big talkers , start with your own community if you really care and get this parade off the streets of crown heights.

  • oki toki boy 73-76

    you guys dont understand , shooting is part of the culture , yes thats the freedom
    they want , to shoot freely

  • crazy

    Why the hell do they allow this parade. There are always acts of violence and killings and stabbing. When will all the liberal politicians wake up and realize this is not a normal parade!!! We need to get rid of it!

  • tob

    get someone who really cares, and take the statistics of how many deaths and maiming there has been, since the first parade. Then ask them to give other neighborhoods the honor of dealing with this.
    there are some very nice ones among these island people, but this situation is so out of hand. How do they allow this BLACK ON BLACK violence????? Doesnt anyone care?

  • Chutzpah

    This parade moved to Crown Heights sometime in the early 1970’s after being kicked out of Harlem. That’s right, they were KICKED OUT of Harlem and they moved here into open, welcoming arms.

    The residents in Crown Heights said absolutely nothing. There is not a residential neighborhood in the entire world that wouldn’t fight tooth and nail to not allow this parade, except, of course, for the wonderful Kan Tzivah.

    Nothing has changed. We are still a community that is dysfunctional and can’t get our act together. The Lag B’omer parade closes just THREE blocks. That’s all!

    This should have NEVER been allowed. Shame on us!

  • Black lives Matter?

    If black lives really mattered this parade would’ve been shut down years ago, not by the Jewish community but by the Black community. The body count mounts and the celebration must go on… It’s only when a black thug or career criminal loses their life in an altercation with the police that “black lives matter”, It’s not the life that matters, it’s the circumstances.

  • hilarious blonde

    ye these comments are blond.

    all of you have jobs?

    Let them enjoy and stop making yourself look so silly with these comments.

    I hope its one or two people commenting under different names,

    #9 beats the cake…like kan tziva? we need to remove the parade?? hello, the rebbe didnt mind it or state such a silly wish..you think its a chabad issue??

    • Ignorant

      The only fool here is you.

      When did you decide to fabricate the Rebbe’s wishes? When did the Rebbe say that he didn’t mind it? The Rebbe never meddled in these kinds of affairs.

      Only a fool such as you would be OK with a community being forcibly gridlocked and having their schools shut down because of a parade that they have no part of.

      Like the fool you are, you didn’t bother to read the part where Harlem, a place once more dangerous than Afghanistan and Iraq, kicked out the parade because of the violence that would occur. Yet the dysfunctional Crown Heights let it come here without any protest.

      If anything, we let the Rebbe down, as we did with so many other things.

    • Civilian

      Did you look outside at all? Do you live near the parade? Sure 5-6 blocks out wasn’t that bad. But living 3 blocks away from Eastern Parkway, it was nothing but a sea of people at all hours. My office faces the street, I caught 5 fights outside my apartment.

      I went out at night once with my girlfriend to get groceries. We were hooted and hollered at the whole time.

      During the day it was fine, but night felt like “the purge”

    • yo me

      me thinks this was all nuts but I kinda get what he’s saying too….its NOT totally our issue..think about it…but yes this stupid parade is totally insane yup.

      wonder if the rebbe did have an opinion on this altogether. I would think it would bother him too if it was this crazy back then and I hear back then it was worse and no pliticians joined in yet.

  • Just saying

    I find it funny that there are people who sue rabbis of crown heights for kapparos bc chickens get killed in the streets and they cant stand that, but danger to our lives and people getting killed, thats just fine, the residents of crown heights should sue the parade organizers and try to get them to stop like the peta ppl try to stop kapparos… chicken lives matter

    • replying..

      I was about to say the same thing, to whoever is against kapores. besides most important the Rebbe did kapores – we have no right to discontinue it, EVER!

    • Two Wrongs Do Not Make A Right

      Dear “replying”: The point of “Just saying” is not the same thing as your point. He/she mentions kapparos, but does not say, as you do, that kapparos should continue despite the protests and lawsuits against it. Rather, “the residents of crown heights should sue the parade organizers and try to get them to stop like the peta ppl try to stop kapparos,” i.e., we should learn from the protests and lawsuits against kappores, and try to have our rights similarly protected and not abused.

      Everyone should realize that “two wrongs do not make a right,” that just because the abuses of the parade are tolerated therefore the abuses of the kappores ritual should also be tolerated. That is still just simply unbecoming and wrong.

    • replying..

      To- “two wrongs dont make it right”. um.. to let go of something highly wrong that is being done every year, as this parade NO ONE SAYS ANYTHING. but to fight against yiddishkeit which is G-d’s will, even frum yidden are there- what a disgrace! i will conclude with kapores: THE REBBE DID IT – WE DO IT! this is my point.

  • There is a boss

    Please let us know of another event in NYC that has yearly killings and is allowed to proceed?!

    • Chicken

      Sure, Kaporos!!! Chicken lives matter!!!!

      Mass annihilation of thousands of chickens in middle of the street so some so called ‘people’ have what to eat for Yomtov……

    • to chicken (wow what a name)

      Does it really matter to you WHERE the chicken is killed?
      We kill the chicken and the eat it, of give it to poor people to eat.

      Human life is cheap – just look at today’s parade and the millions of “legal abortions”
      Animal’s are another story – Don’t do kaparos, ruin a hunters life because he killed a dumb lion.
      But since you are a chicken, of course you will support the animals, not the humans.

    • Milhouse

      The other annual NYC parade that is always accompanied by a wave of violent crime is NOT Patrick’s day, it’s the Puerto Rican parade.

  • Chani Perelman

    the cops should make a deal with them. From now on, the moment the first gunshot is fired, the parade ends immediately.

  • Pablo cohen

    I propose tsa security checkpoints to enter the parade. If you don’t have a knife or gun you can come in to enjoy the parade.

  • Mendelssohn chaim

    Crown heights info can u please update the incident list, as many more stabbings and shootings today..

  • DeClasse' Intellectual

    #19 good idea!!! So what else is new; violence, injury and death are a consistent theme of these parades not to count how it disrupts the whole section of the city.. Move this whole thing to wall street and then see what would occurr

  • chana

    if my math is correct. only two murders this year !! that is down from 16 last year. at that rate , in two years there will be no more murders, only families eating jerk chicken and playing loud music and that is fine as long as they do it in a giant sukkah made of the skin of the leviathan

  • Mimi

    There are a couple of other parades that go on, like the saint Patrick day parade, The Columbus day parade plus a couple of more parades and you don’t hear of this kind of violence any where else except the West Indian Day Parade, and there are a lot of people that just want to go and see the parade and have a good time but the criminals are running it for the people that want to enjoy the parade, something has to give because this violence is not going to stop.

  • lu;u

    You can not go and sue anyone for preparing a parade this is a tradition for the West Indian people they need a check point to enter, but I guess it is hard to check millions of people, but something has to give or else I don’t see how this parade can continue

  • DeClasse' Intellectual

    The violence and the carring ons of bad behavior is national news throughout the country. My friends have seen the reports on the immoral and lawless behavior of numerous participants and wonder who get paid off to let this farce continue. Last report is that Camo’s aid is not doing good at all–will this have effect–no because of political correctness and left wing liberalism

  • heshy

    I AGREE WITH #24 & THE 77th PRECINCT SHOULD BE ADDED WHEN THIS PARADE FIRST CAME TO CROWN HEIGHTS THEY MARCHED ON ST. JOHNS PL.

  • the truth

    sorry to make you all aware the lubavitchers are a small minority in the area the parade runs..

    and the number of shooting are similar to what would happen if you had that many people sitting at home over a long summer weekend.. take nyc and divide by 7 .. that how many people show up to the parade.. doesn’t excuse it .. but out of 1m people to have 2 shootings isn’t so bad

  • DeClasse' Intellectual

    #How pathetic: a justification for what occur yearly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • BMae

    I lived in Crown heights for 3 years right on Utica and St Johns. I dreaded this parade every year. The neighborhood is bad already on it’s own but throw in these “festivities” that start not Monday but Thursday nothing but partying, drinking, smoking weed and whatever else people were getting into its a damn headache. I for one still had to leave my apartment because I work and my kid went to school in the city and always felt unsafe. I am not surprised at all at the level of violence written in this article. Labor Day in crown heights is just another excuse for people to get drunk and stupid.

    • heshy

      It has ujst been confirmed that the mayors aide who was shot in the head during the ‘FESTIVITIES” has diedA graduate of Harvard law school.this is truly a shonda..