Crown Heights Brooklyn (WABC) — One person was shot and two others were slashed near the start of the annual New York Caribbean Mardi Gras parade route in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn on Monday.
The incident happened around 5:30 p.m. as festivities were coming to a close, but many people were still enjoying the festivities at the corner of East Park Avenue and Utica Avenue.
Three people were injured in a brawl between two groups at 1187 East Parkway, near the start of the parade route, officials said.
A 19-year-old man was shot in the hip, a 16-year-old man was slashed in the leg and a 20-year-old man was slashed in the hand.
“We had several teams meet,” said John Chell of the NYPD’s Patrol Division. “We don’t know what caused the fight. Gunshots rang out, two people were stabbed and one was shot in the back. We recovered a gun but the police arrived quickly.”
Two of the victims were taken to Brookdale Hospital, and one of the victims refused medical attention. All victims are expected to be unharmed.
The windshield of a FDNY fire truck parked on the corner of East Avenue was also hit by stray bullets.
No firefighters were injured.
No one has been arrested so far.
Before the weekend began, police vowed to keep the festivities safe, even deploying drones to assist officers in making 911 calls.
By the time the march began Monday morning, Mayor Eric Adams had already declared victory.
“This is going to be one of the safest Mardi Gras weekends in the city to date,” he said.
During the march, officers seized four guns from the street, including one used in the East and Utica shootings.
Authorities said there were about 5,000 people in that corner.
Police deployed another drone there, tethered to an SUV, which they said helped to visualize where to deploy resources. After a few minutes, the intersection was cleared.
“We had a whole bunch of people in this corner and there was definitely going to be retaliation, and we called in the drone technology to see the density we were looking at, and now you know what’s going on,” Cher said. “Pull the drone out, Put some cops on the corner and we’re a lot safer now than we were an hour ago. That’s the name of the game.”
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